Making The Cut - The Shadow King

The four novels by Black writers on the Booker longlist that deserve a spot in the shortlist

- Shougat Dasgupta

The Booker longlist, announced just over a month ago, was greeted with a strange mixture of delighted surprise and disdain. The response suggested that the Booker Prize had been calcified into another form of celebrity endorsement, of already famous writers enjoying another round of industry backslaps. But the Booker has often shortlisted and awarded unanticipated writers, including the likes of Kiran Desai and Aravind Adiga, to name the most recent Indian winners. Not to forget Arundhati Roy in 1997.

The Shadow King The Shadow King is a gorgeously crafted and unputdownable exploration of female power, and what it means to be a woman at war. Shop Now