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Finalists announced for the inaugural Booker Prize Book Club Challenge
The Booker Prize has revealed the six reading groups who will be reading and discussing books from this year’s shortlist, competing for places at the winners’ ceremony in October.
The prize partnered with the charity The Reading Agency earlier this year to select the six lucky groups, who come from Devon to County Down, and hail from all walks of life from steel workers to bakers.
More than 100 groups applied, and representatives from the final six were invited to attend yesterday’s shortlist party at the Serpentine Gallery in London, where they met the judges and were paired with one of the shortlisted books.
Over the next month the clubs will be reading, discussing and reviewing their book, sharing their views online on social media, as well as with The Reading Agency’s community of readers and the Booker Prize website. Two members of the club that shares the most original and engaging reviews will then be invited to attend this year’s Booker Prize winner ceremony on 17th October at the Roundhouse.
Weegie BeeGee club in Glasgow have been given NoViolet Bulawayo’s Glory (Chatto & Windus). They started up in the book group boom of the early 2000s. In that time, their 18 readers have read 172 books by 165 authors and have eaten 113 cakes, which they try to match to the books they are reading, often by location or theme.
The Royal Devon Culture Club will be reading Percival Everett’s The Trees (Influx Press). This group was born out of lockdown, set up by three founding members who bonded over books and feminism on Twitter. It is run by NHS staff who work at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and aims to provide an inclusive space where members read, discuss and listen to books, as well as poetry, podcasts and comedy.
Bridge Books book club in County Down will read Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker (Fourth Estate). Bridge Books is a small bookshop in Dromore, which has been serving its loyal local customers for more than 25 years. And while its book club has only been going for six months, it is already 14 members strong and boasts a broad mix of readers who are looking to discover something new. As the little shop is bursting at the seams with books, the club meets in a local bar each month, where they discuss a selected book and choose from three titles to read at their next meeting.
Casual Readers Club from East London have been given Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Sort of Books) to read. The club encompasses readers from a range of different backgrounds, who are aged 19 to 40. Theirs is an inclusive and safe space where members have an "earnest and honest connection over books". With 20 regular members – and nearly 100 on their mailing list – they say it often takes them "quite a while to decide on a book because there is just SO much to read". They read across genres and chose to highlight books by women of colour for the first six months of this year.
Scunthorpe Pageturners from Lincolnshire will pick up Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These (Faber). The group has been gathering to discuss books for an impressive 18 years and is made up of a self-described "eclectic" mix of individuals, including a civil servant, a steel worker, a shop worker, a dinner lady and two retirees. Between them, they have survived four changes of venue and the pandemic, to which they adapted by moving online.
Finally, Shelter Cymru Chwaeroniaeth (Swansea) will be reading Elizabeth Strout’s Oh William! (Viking). Shelter Cymru Chwaeroniaeth, which translates to "sisterhood" in Welsh, are a group of readers committed to social justice and making a difference. They use books to explore a range of ideas, stories and perspectives and look “for that which unites us, rather than divides”. The members originally met many years ago while working for the charity Shelter, and with ages ranging from mid-50s to early 70s they have kept in touch for 40 years, supporting each other through births, deaths and career changes, “with tears and laughter”.
Neil MacGregor, chair of the 2022 judges, said: “We’ve always known that being alone with a book is one of the great pleasures of life. But the number and the range of entries for this first Booker Prize Book Club Challenge shows that for thousands of us, being with a group of friends discussing a book is even better. From all over the UK, people from different worlds get together to build friendships as they chew over the books they have recently read. This year’s shortlist gives them lots of good things to sink their critical teeth into. Bon appétit!”
Gaby Wood, director of the Booker Prize Foundation, added: “We launched this competition – in collaboration with The Reading Agency – in the hope that book clubs all over the UK would want to discuss the books shortlisted for the Booker Prize and share some of the thrill Booker judges experience when reading together.
“Little did we know that people all over the world would want to join in! Or that the hundreds of book clubs who did apply would have such incredible stories to tell, offering a window not only onto the reading nation but (it was just possible to feel) onto humanity.
“I hugely look forward to hearing more from the six clubs the judges have chosen, and on behalf of those of us who read all the entries I’d like to thank every single book club for allowing us a glimpse of your lives. Please keep in touch!”
