Roddy Doyle curates new Booker Prize 'Quick Read' collection to boost adult reading rates

The Booker Prize Foundation is launching a short story collection entitled All Around The World, including works by the Booker Prize winners Anne Enright, David Szalay and Booker Prize nominee Nadifa Mohamed. The collection was curated by another former winner, Roddy Doyle.

The collection will be distributed as part of the Quick Reads initiative, which aims to widen access to Booker Prize-winning authors and is set to launch this week.

New research from The Reading Agency, a UK charity tackling low literacy rates, and the Booker Prize Foundation into the reading habits of adults in the UK finds that key barriers to reading include competing demands on adults' attention, busy lives and the cost of books.

"It's an invitation to read," said Doyle.

"Quick Reads is like dipping your toe in the water of literature, with some of the barriers that might put people off removed. A lot of people might feel there is nothing about their world in books. The stories in All Around the World have access points, and I hope they alert readers to the fact that, actually, their life might be in here somewhere."

Readers will be able to buy the collection for €1.50, and the Booker Prize Foundation will donate 12,000 copies to people who face barriers to reading.

The stories included in the collection are:

'Until the Girl Died' by Anne Enright

'Afternoon at the Bakery' by Yoko Ogawa

'The Buggy' by Roddy Doyle

'Flight' by David Szalay

'Filsan' by Nadifa Mohamed

'No Need to Fear the Depths' by Andrey Kurkov

'Into the Mud' by Yael van der Wouden