{"title":"Booker Prize Shortlist 2026","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"john-of-john-trade-paperback","title":"John Of John (Trade Paperback)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe stunning new novel from the Booker Prize-winning, Sunday Times-bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'John of John has the emotional range and sense of sympathy of his earlier books, but this book is special, it has an urgency, an immediacy, a brilliant sense of place, the drama of fierce emotion repressed, concealed and volcanically exposed' - Colm Tóibín\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'To read John of John is to move to the Isle of Harris and take up residence in the family croft. The novel is so immersive, so all-encompassing, that I felt like I was living in it. Douglas Stuart has written something brilliant and rare' - Ann Patchett\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOut of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home to the island of Harris to find that not much has changed except for him. In the windswept croft where he grew up, Cal resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, John is dismayed by his son’s long hair and how he seems unwilling to be Saved. 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It confirms Douglas Stuart as one of the great British writers at work today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Douglas Stuart","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47057730666674,"sku":"9781035086962","price":399.0,"currency_code":"ZAR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0562\/9191\/8002\/files\/9781035086962.jpg?v=1771332792"},{"product_id":"the-things-we-never-say-hardcover","title":"The Things We Never Say (Hardcover)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eFROM THE PULITZER-WINNING, BOOKER-SHORTLISTED ELIZABETH STROUT COMES A STUNNING STANDALONE NOVEL OF LOVE, LONELINESS AND NEW BEGINNINGS\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Emotionally stunning, devastatingly wise . . . her best novel yet' \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eRACHEL JOYCE\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘A moving, tender and wise novel about a committed teacher who is utterly confounded by the emotional complexities of daily life. This might be Elizabeth Strout’s best yet’ \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eCLARE CHAMBERS\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eArtie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbours, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive. But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad―at himself and the people around him―and turns a question over and over in his mind: how is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear―and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eWith exquisite prose and profound insight, Elizabeth Strout captures the way grief reverberates through decades, the comfort found in deep friendships and the freedom that comes when we break free of our secrets.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e The Things We Never Say \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eis a stunning new novel from one of our most acclaimed observers of the human heart.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elizabeth Strout","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47065199771826,"sku":"9780241814307","price":495.0,"currency_code":"ZAR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0562\/9191\/8002\/files\/9780241814307.jpg?v=1777474187"},{"product_id":"disappearers-trade-paperback","title":"The Disappearers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMARLON JAMES'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING \u003ci\u003eA BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Darkness is a mood in Jamaica . . .'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Disappearers\u003c\/i\u003e is Marlon James's triumphant return to the Jamaica of \u003ci\u003eA Brief History of Seven Killings\u003c\/i\u003e - a place of heat and chaos, and of danger for anyone outside the heteronormal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo when eight gay men meet for the first time, in Kingston in 1988, answering the casting call for an openly queer play, they are already taking a big risk. But that is nothing compared to what rains down on them when a mob descends on one of their rehearsals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy the end of this night, one man is dead, all are injured, and two subsequently disappear. As the survivors heal, each man finds he must confront the bigotry and homophobia that the attack laid bare. Some try to forget; some embrace their rage; and some simply vanish - but all are forever scarred.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs one of the victims puts it, '\u003ci\u003ethere's a difference between when something ends and when something stops\u003c\/i\u003e'. And this story won't stop until both the disappearers and the perpetrators have been tracked, along trails both hot and cold, and an ending reached.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEpic and intimate, violent and forgiving, \u003ci\u003eThe Disappearers\u003c\/i\u003e is a tour de force which only Marlon James could have written - both an unflinching portrait of the hatred and shame faced by gay men in a society which refuses to accept them, and a deeply human story of acceptance and insight.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Marlon James","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47624667824306,"sku":"9780241714416","price":430.0,"currency_code":"ZAR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0562\/9191\/8002\/files\/9780241714416.jpg?v=1784374745"},{"product_id":"may-we-feed-the-king-hardcover","title":"May We Feed the King","description":"She is a curator, who spends her time dressing the rooms of historic buildings to bring them to life. But in the lush private quarters of a medieval palace, she finds herself so transfixed by the reign of an almost-forgotten King that the edges of her life begin to blur. .\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nHe is a reluctant ruler with no hunger for power, rushed to the throne after the untimely deaths of his older brothers. But it isn't long before whispers begin to fly around the court. And with the growing belief that the King is not fit for the throne comes the idea that another might rule in his stead.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cem\u003eMay We Feed the King\u003c\/em\u003e dances between the lives of a historical subject who risks the future of his kingdom and a woman who turns to the past to hide from her present. 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