Whale: SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2023

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Thanks ever so much to @europaeditionsuk for sharing this title with me on @netgalley! Spotted in @waterstonesreading this morning. What was the experience of working with Cheon Myeong-kwan like? How closely did you work together? Was it a very collaborative process? Were there any surprising moments during your collaboration, or joyful moments, or challenges?

Nettel has created rich, flawed, searching characters and allows such access to them – their minds, desires, contradictions. In part, her book is about the very closeness and intimacy it enacts.Cheon Myeong-kwan’s International Booker shortlist is a classic infused with magic realism and punctuated by dried fish I am still reading the novel but I wanted to write a few words about it before the winner is announced Tomorrow. I think the novel has the best chances to win. I loved Boulder more but I am not sure it will win. This one epic, longer and “big” in every way, from the themes explored to the writing style and plot.

For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. Unlike Peake, who could only command a cult following, Kwan’s novel holds you in thrall. It will not be giving anything away to describe how there is even a Disney-style elephant called Jumbo, retired from a circus travelling through Korea, who communicates with Geumbok’s verbally-challenged daughter Chunhui. In one of the more lyrical passages, Jumbo points out the fragile blue marble of planet Earth of Carl Sagan’s imagery, floating through space.They chose the longlist from 134 books published between 1 May 2022 and 30 April 2023 and submitted to the prize by publishers. Whale provides an unflinching look at two contrasting portraits of national identity in the era of Korean modernisation – equally valid, yet highly oppositional.