Man Booker Prize 2017 long list: How readable are the books?

Thirteen novels have been recognised as extraordinary works of fiction written anywhere in the world and published in the UK. But how readable are these books anyway?

Which of these will transport us to a quiet (if eerie) small town on a rainy afternoon? Which one is an ideal bedtime reading and which one will keep us up compulsively turning the pages to find out the truth about a missing girl?

Here’s a reader’s guide to the lucky 13.

Set in the forests of rural Minnesota, Emily Fridlund’s History of Wolves follows the 40-year-old daughter of commune members who tries to find normalcy and belonging by befriending a seemingly perfect family across the lake. If you’re a fan of bleak landscapes whose isolation reveals what is most frightening in humans (think Top of the Lake), this might be the book for you.

Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones, written as a single sentence, has already won the Goldsmiths Prize. An Irishman’s ghost recounts his life, building up to the circumstances that ended it. If you’re interested in yet another (admittedly skilfully written) story of a disillusioned man, look no further.

Reservoir 13 would be my choice for a long journey. Jon McGregor sets a crime in a British village where a 13-year-old girl disappears while on holiday with her family. As the investigation unfolds, and the reservoirs are searched, McGregor quietly scrutinises the villagers. Quick-paced and tense, Reservoir 13 is a thriller several cuts above pulp.

Written from the perspective of a boy remembering his rural childhood in Yorkshire with his sister and his father, Fiona Mozley’s Elmet explores the consequences of the father building a house with his bare hands on land that no one uses, but that he does not own. Set to be published in November, we will have to wait for this one.

In another ghost story, the 11-year-old deceased son of Abraham Lincoln corresponds from purgatory with his grieving father in George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo. Strange, ethereal and terrifying, the novel constructs a purgatory where young Lincoln’s fate will be decided and where other ghosts who are caught between life and death hover. The Civil War and the battle for the son’s soul make this book a disquieting and captivating read.

In the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Underground Railroad, Colson Whithead follows a runaway slave as she attempts to escape through an underground network of trains that ferry runaways from state to state in America. One of the strongest books of the year, it subverts your expectations at every juncture.

Set between London, Karachi and Syria, Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire takes a compassionate look at what it means to be Muslim today. In Shamsie’s masterful, gripping prose, this book about two families with very different relationships with Islam, can be read in a single seating, but it will leave you with questions for days.

Bearing similar concerns in mind, Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West is the story of a young couple in an unnamed Middle Eastern country on the brink of a civil war. As they tentatively explore the possibilities of love, escalating tensions force them to escape. Exit West is a timely account of the inevitable mass migrations the West is determined to divert.

Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness has divided the literary world. Maybe wait for the hullaballoo to die down before you crack open this one. It’s nothing like God of Small Things, that much critics agree on. As we live through turbulent political times, are we ready for a novel on India and Pakistan’s fraught relationship on Kashmir?

Ali Smith’s Autumn steps in and out of realist storytelling. The daily wanderings of an art history teacher in her 30s are interlaced with the dreams of her century-old neighbour in a coma in a residential care facility. Their friendship, rooted in a love for art and literature, is narrated in the backdrop of post-Brexit violence in the UK. The brightness of human interaction and creativity, and the bleakness of the state of the world sit tidily together in Autumn.

Zadie Smith’s Swing Time is about the worlds of music and dance, and the tenuous position of black bodies within them. The friendship of two girls growing up in public housing is complicated by their different choices that will trap and free them in ways they don’t anticipate. This memorable novel is a reminder that we shouldn’t be so sure that leaving home is a meaningful improvement of our lives.

Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End follows the escape of Thomas from a famine-plagued Ireland to America where the horrors of the Civil War await him. Serving in the US army, he reinvents himself against the brutal backdrop of the army’s atrocities against indigenous communities. Barry explores trans-identity and queer love in a violent era.

At 866 pages, Paul Auster’s 4321 is longer and heavier than the others. Set during the American Civil War (a theme in this year’s longlist), the life of one, average man is told in four possible iterations. It has been described as “wearying” and “tiring” by different reviewers. If you really enjoy sinking your teeth into lengthy novels, this could be your next bedside companion.

Also read: If Arundhati Roy didn’t exist, we’d have to invent her