Irish writer Claire Keegan shortlisted for Booker Prize

Claire Keegan has been included on the shortlist for The Booker Prize 2022, for her acclaimed novel Small Things Like These – which addresses the horrific history of Ireland's Magdalene laundries.

At 116 pages, Small Things Like These is the shortest book ever to be nominated for the prize, though Alan Garner's Treacle Walker, which is also nominated, contains fewer words.

Keegan is also the author of the short story Foster, which was recently adapted for film as An Cailín Ciúin. The much lauded Irish-language film was recently selected as Ireland's entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the upcoming 95th Academy Awards.

The Booker Prize shortlist also includes the oldest author ever to be shortlisted, Alan Garner, who will celebrate his 88th birthday on the night of the award ceremony.

The six authors on the shortlist represent five different nationalities and four continents – with an equal split of men and women.

See the shortlist below:

• Glory, NoViolet Bulawayo
• Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan
• Treacle Walker, Alan Garner
• The Trees, Percival Everett
• The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Shehan Karunatilaka
• Oh William!, Elizabeth Strout

"Why did we choose these six?" comments Neil MacGregor, chair of the Booker Prize 2022 judges. "In every one, the author uses language not only to tell us what happens, but to create a world which we, outsiders, can enter and inhabit — and not merely by using words from local languages or dialects.

"NoViolet Bulawayo’s incantatory repetitions induct us all into a Zimbabwean community of memory and expectation, just as Alan Garner’s shamanic obliquities conjure a realm that reason alone could never access. Percival Everett and Shehan Karunatilaka spin fantastical verbal webs of Gothic horror — and humour — that could not be further removed from the hypnotic, hallucinatory clarity of Claire Keegan’s and Elizabeth Strout’s pared-down prose. Most important, all affirm the importance and the power of finding and sharing the truth."

We are delighted to announce the #BookerPrize2022 shortlist, here’s what the judges had to say about the final six. Find out more about the shortlisted books and authors: https://t.co/LYjnUXSbzk @ShahidhaBari @hrcastor @amabanckou @mjohnharrison pic.twitter.com/I5qWT1i5E9

— The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) September 6, 2022