Books Briefing: The Booker Prize Shortlist

September 15, 2020

In previous years, the Booker shortlist was dominated by literary heavyweights. This time, four of the books are from debut novelists.The Booker Prize

Hi readers,

Here’s your weekly catch-up on everything you need to know going on in the book world.

The news:

Debut novelists dominated this year’s Booker Prize shortlist: Four of the six finalists are first-time writers. It’s a break with lists from previous years, which often favored literary heavyweights.
The Justice Department is investigating whether John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser, disclosed classified information in his memoir “The Room Where It Happened.”
Margaret Atwood, Héctor Tobar, Thomas Mallon and Brenda Wineapple write about older political novels they admire that have a lot to say about the world today.
The author Richard Kreitner discusses his new book, “Break It Up,” about the long history of divisions and secessionist movements in the U.S.
Fiction out today: “Homeland Elegies,” by Ayad Akhtar; “The Abstainer,” by Ian McGuire; “Payback,” by Mary Gordon; “Long Live the Post Horn!” by Vigdis Hjorth.
Nonfiction out today: “Rage,” by Bob Woodward; “Agent Sonya,” by Ben Macintyre; “The Spymasters,” by Chris Whipple; “The Last Million,” by David Nasaw; “The Tyranny of Merit,” by Michael J. Sandel; “A Better Man,” by Michael Ian Black; “Greyboy,” by Cole Brown; “If Then,” by Jill Lepore; “One Billion Americans,” by Matthew Yglesias; “The Wake-Up Call,” by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge; “Once I Was You,” by Maria Hinojosa; “The New Map,” by Daniel Yergin; “Who Gets in and Why,” by Jeffrey Selingo.

The critics:

Dwight Garner has high praise for Ayad Akhtar’s new semi-autobiographical novel, “Homeland Elegies,” calling it “a lover’s quarrel with this country” that has “candor and seriousness to burn.”
In “Rage,” Bob Woodward’s new book about the president, the author sets out to offer “an utterly vivid window into Trump’s mind.” But Woodward’s old-school approach doesn’t always translate to a deeply unorthodox administration, Jennifer Szalai says. She puts it bluntly in her review: “A window can be only so vivid if it looks out onto an air shaft.”
And John Williams writes about Evie Wyld’s new novel, “The Bass Rock,” a skillfully told story about women and girls on the Scottish coast who have grappled with the threat of physical violence for centuries.

That’s all for now. Please stay in touch and let me know what you think — whether it’s about this newsletter, our reviews, our podcast, our literary calendar, our Instagram or what you’re reading. We on the Books desk read all of it, and I’ll make every effort to write back. You can reach me at books@nytimes.com.

All my best,

Joumana Khatib

Books at The New York Times

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