Gaby Wood described today’s event as “critical judgement come Game of Thrones.” In just one hour, the panel were tasked with navigating five decades’ worth of Man Booker Prize winners with the end view of selecting their favourite ahead of the public vote in July.
With each of the five novels coming from separate decades, the discussion could not escape the presence of history and its role in the present. “I see lots of things that are timeless in each novel,” said Elif Shafak, delving into their current relevance at a time “when so much madness is happening in the world.”
Moving from Penelope Lively’s Moon Tiger and Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall to Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, VS Naipaul’s In a Free State and George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, the panel discussed the form, language and importance of the novel as a genre. “What I love in fiction is having to work hard,” said Philippe Sands, highlighting the importance of literature that forces you to react. The five novels in question were discussed as ever-changing pieces that explore a moment in history from a different angle.
“Literature is the place where we say to power: Your version of history is not our version of history,” said Juan Gabriel Vasquez. They all agreed that as a result, the agreed criteria for today’s winner was to be a novel that allows the invisible to become visible and gives, in the words of Shafak, “more power to the powerless”. Vasquez added that he wants novels to let him “enter history through a different door.” After an audience vote, Lively and Ondaatje were announced as joint victors. The result of the public vote will be announced on the 8th of July.
Picture left to right: Gaby Wood, Philippe Sands, Elif Shafak, Juan Gabriel Vasquez
If you missed this event, you might like event number 110, The Philosophy of Rumi, at 5.30pm today.