Published in the Sunday Times: 15/09/2019
A lineup of books that "teems with life, with a profound and celebratory humanity" is how one judge described this year's choice.
The judges had been the only people to see the manuscript of The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Penguin Random House), under strict embargo until last Tuesday.
Lucy Ellman's Ducks, Newburyport (Galley Beggar Press) is a wildly experimental novel about a woman looking back on her life that runs to 1,000 pages.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (Penguin Random House) tells the stories of 12 British women in poetry and prose.
Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma (Little, Brown) spins a powerful tale of class, race and male rage in An Orchestra of Minorities.
Salman Rushdie takes the classic tale of Don Quixote and cleverly updates it for the digital age in Quichotte (Jonathan Cape).
Finally, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World (Viking) by Elif Shafak is a haunting but uplifting novel about a woman's last moments alive.
