Hey everyone, welcome back to the Waterstones vlog, it is Will here. I thought I would
talk about the Man Booker longlist this week seeing as it's such an interesting
long list. I think there's been a lot of chatter about it because there's quite a
wide range of books on there. There's genre fiction in the form of Belinda
Bauer's Snap, there was a graphic novel of course for the first time with
Sabrina by Nick Drnaso. I mentioned that book previously, didn't I, I said this
book is gonna win prizes; maybe this will be the prize, maybe it won't, but it's
certainly worth noting that it's the first time a graphic novel's appeared on the
Man Booker long list. if you haven't seen that video then if you're watching on
YouTube a link will have just popped up above my head, if you're not watching on
YouTube then go to it now, find the Waterstones channel and check the vlog
playlist and you'll see me on there somewhere talking about Sabrina. It's an
absolutely amazing amazing book. There's even genre defying fiction on the
Man Booker long list in the form of The Long Take by Robin Robertson. It's
written in verse, sort of a narrative noir, it's very difficult to
describe that book but very interesting nonetheless. And there are established
names on there like Michael Ondaatje's new novel, Warlight. He of course recently
won the golden Man Booker, that is definitely on my To Be Read pile. There are
younger writers like Sally Rooney, this is her new novel, Normal People. A lot of
people would have read Conversations with Friends - do stay tuned on our channels
because I will be having a chat with Sally Rooney about her new book, Normal
People, at some point in the near future. We have of course already mentioned some
of the Man Booker long list on our vlog already. A few weeks ago Aisling mentioned
The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh, she absolutely loved that book, said it was
probably her book of the year. Again a link will have popped up above my head
if you're watching on YouTube and if you're not then you'll be able to see
Aisling's thoughts on that book over there. And I had previously mentioned The
Overstory by Richard Powers which I absolutely loved. Again stay tuned, I will
be doing an interview with Richard next week which should be up on our channels
fairly soon. He is a fascinating man so I'm very excited and slightly terrified
to speak to him about this book and hopefully about some of his others too.
I haven't read the entire long list of course I have some on the list that I
definitely want to read. The first of those is this one here, Washington Black
by Esi Edugyan, which I am very excited by - not only because it's a completely gorgeous
book, as you can see lots of lovely shiny gold
on there - but I read and loved her previous novel Half Blood Blues. I think
she's a fantastic writer, this is another piece of historical fiction, which I
don't normally go for but she's just damn good at it so I'm just gonna have
to do that. And Daisy Johnson whose story collection
Fen I read and loved a couple years ago, or maybe even just a year ago. This is her
debut novel, Everything Under. She writes these fantastic stories that sort of
play with boundaries and blur them and and have this kind of slightly magical
quality to them so if i that sounds like you're bag then she's definitely a
writer to look out for. But as I said a very wide-ranging long list and I think
there's lots in there to appeal to different types of readers and I think
that's why it's been engaging people. And there's a few things to sort of
challenge you as well if you're a reader that likes to just sort of challenge
yourself and to find a different type of reading experience. I suppose one of the
biggest stories has been the popularity of Sabrina by Nick Drnaso. Poor old Granta
books struggling to maintain enough copies in shops to meet demand. They are
printing away furiously. Of course it's a colour book and so requires a much more
complicated printing process than just wacking out black and white books. So I
do really, really recommend it but it's obviously shone a light on graphic
novels in general and I helped to contribute to a piece on the Waterstones
website which is a list of 12 graphic novels that might help you get started
if you've never read one before. And I say this because I think it was 2001
when Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan won the Guardian First Book Award and that
was the first graphic novel I'd ever read. I had never read one before I'd
never had any interest in reading them before and it blew my mind. And it got me
very excited about the possibilities of what graphic fiction can do. And when
it's really exciting for me is when it does something that standard literary
fiction cannot do. And I think one of the areas in which graphic novels can really
excel is when they look at mental health. And this is because what they can do is
to illustrate through the pictures something about that condition, whatever
it might be ,whether it's the way that somebody sees themselves or the way the
world sees them or the experience of a mental health
problem or even a physical problem. And I'm thinking here of books like
Epileptic by David B which is an amazing graphic memoir about his brother's
epilepsy in France in the late 60s early 70s which has this stunning
pictorial sort of visualization of what epilepsy feels like to the sufferer. It's
an absolutely incredible book. There's another one called Lighter than my
Shadow which is all about anorexia, eating disorders, and that's brilliant at
showing you as the reader what that feels like for the person who's
suffering from that condition. There are so many, there's a book called The Nao of Brown
by Glyn Dillon which features a character who suffers from
obsessive compulsive disorder and it shows really clearly the reality of
what that is. I think that's one of those conditions where we think we know what
that's like and we think of sort of obsessive hand-washing
and it's really not that at all. And the book shows brilliantly how that
character is dealing with that condition and what the world looks like
to them as a result of it. And that's published by SelfMadeHero and I wanted
to mention another one of their books which similarly illustrates a mental
health condition. The book is called Tumult, it is by John Harris Dunning and
Michael Kennedy, and as you can see on the cover here this is an illustration
which is one of the characters who has multiple personalities. And the book
itself is, sort of reads like a thriller or a sort of a noir or a
sort of a mystery spy novel or something. It has that kind of narrative thrust to
it. But also, as I say, through the illustration it was a really brilliant
depiction of multiple personality disorder. I absolutely loved this book. It
was very, very atmospheric. It's got this very sort of stark starkly colorized
illustrations, I'll try and flick through a few and show you what it looks like
inside. And yeah really, really enjoyable and as I say brilliant at depicting that
condition. And another book I want to mention before I finish up is not out
yet but will be out soon. And I mention it because it has some of the most
amazing illustrations that I have seen in a graphic
for years. The book is called Square Eyes by Mill and Jones. It's going to be coming
out I think in September and it looks at a sort of near future where reality is
not all that it seems. And it has these amazing illustrations, I'm almost loath
to try and flick through the book because it won't really show them off
brilliantly, I will try and flash up some images. But it has this kind of augmented
reality feel to it and what they've done with the illustrations is to sort of
show this layering of reality through the different colors and the different
things that are used. It is such an amazing achievement not only in the sort
of creation of it but in the production of the book itself. It's another stunning
bit of production from Jonathan Cape. So yeah I would really, really recommend
that if you are fully into your graphic novels and this is one that you will
definitely want to have on your list. So I apologize again for you know starting
off talking about the Man Booker list and then ending up falling into one of
my favorite topics which is graphic novels but, hey, it's my vlog, I'll do
what I want. That's all for me this week. Please join us again next week for
more fantastic book recommendations but for now, if you want to know any more
about the Man Booker long list there is a link in this video's description that
will take you to the Waterstones website which has got all of the books there and more
information about them. And as I say, if you want more information about graphic
novels to help you get started and get you hooked as I clearly am, there's a
link below for that article too. I will see you very soon. Take care.