from the Booker Prize

For a major prize looking at books from around the world, several short novels have made the cut.

Why fuss about Bookers?

• It's a UK-based award for the "best novel written in English."
• Judges have a big worldwide scope. (Most prizes are awarded nationally or regionally or in specific genres.)
• Leading authors are judges. Which adds credibility, lending their endorsement to  nominees and winners.
• Award annually, it's a newsmaker. Because it's well-established, it's made controversial choices, and it's actively responded to public critiques over the years.

A little history...

• The award was originally founded in 1969.
• For a while, thanks to a sponsor, it was called "The Man Booker Prize" (2002-2019).
• Another shift: until 2014, the prize was limited to citizens of the Commonwealth, Ireland, South Africa and Zimbabwe. (It excluded authors from the US and elsewhere.)

Here's 9 novels nominated for the Booker Prize over the last decade (with short descriptions and purchase options for each).

The Shortish Project is an evolving database of new and classic short novels from publishers big and small. Find the latest. Discover hidden gems. Search by author, book title or ISBN here.

Or lean in and do a random scroll through the full Shortish database (600 titles or so)!