Booker Prize 2021: Rachel Cusk, Patricia Lockwood, Sunjeev Sahota and more make longlist

Lockwood is one of two debut novelists to make the list

The 13 books longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize (Booker Prizes)

The 2021 Booker Prize longlist has been unveiled.

Among this year’s “Booker dozen” (the 13 longlisted authors) are Sunjeev Sahota, Rachel Cusk, and Patricia Lockwood, respectively for their novels China Room, Second Place, and No One is Talking About This.

Kazuo Ishiguro, a 1989 Booker winner and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, is also longlisted with Klara and the Sun.

Lockwood is one of two debut novelists to make the list, along with Nathan Harris, author of The Sweetness of Water.

The Booker Prize is open to works by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. This year’s list was chosen from 158 novels published between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2021.

Here is the 2021 Booker Prize longlist in full:

Anuk Arudpragasam (Sri Lankan) – A Passage North (Granta Books, Granta Publications)

Rachel Cusk (British/Canadian) – Second Place (Faber)

Damon Galgut (South African) – The Promise (Chatto & Windus, Vintage, PRH)

Nathan Harris (American) – The Sweetness of Water (Tinder Press, Headline, Hachette Book Group)

Kazuo Ishiguro (British) – Klara and the Sun (Faber)

Karen Jennings (South African) – An Island (Holland House Books)

Mary Lawson (Canadian) – A Town Called Solace (Chatto & Windus, Vintage, PRH)

Patricia Lockwood (American) – No One is Talking About This (Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury Publishing)

Nadifa Mohamed (British/Somali) – The Fortune Men (Viking, Penguin General, PRH)

Richard Powers (American) – Bewilderment (William Heinemann, PRH)

Sunjeev Sahota (British) – China Room (Harvill Secker, Vintage, PRH)

Maggie Shipstead (American) – Great Circle (Doubleday, Transworld Publishers, PRH)

Francis Spufford (British) – Light Perpetual (Faber)

This year’s judging panel was chaired by historian Maya Jasanoff. On the panel were writer and editor Horatia Harrod; actor Natascha McElhone; twice Booker-shortlisted novelist and professor Chigozie Obioma; and writer and former Archbishop Rowan Williams.

The shortlist of six books will be announced on 14 September, and the 2021 winner will be revealed on 3 November.

“Reading in lockdown fostered a powerful sense of connection with the books, and of shared enterprise among the judges,” Jasanoff said in a statement.

“Though we didn’t always respond in the same way to an author’s choices, every book on this list sparked long discussions amongst ourselves that led in unexpected and enlightening directions. We are excited to share a list that will appeal to many tastes, and, we hope, generate many more conversations as readers dig in.”