Seven Booker Prize-nominated novels with a sporting edge

Emily Facoory curated a list of Booker Prize-nominated novels "that incorporate sports, whether as a central theme or simply a brief scene." One title on the list:

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill

Featuring another sport set to be included in the 2028 Olympic Games, Netherland – longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2008 – follows Hans, a wealthy Dutch banker living in New York just after the tragedy of 9/11. Feeling lost and alone after his wife leaves him and returns to London with their son, he stumbles across a New York subculture of cricket players.

There, he befriends Chuck Ramkissoon, a Gatsby-like figure helps Hans to find a community within the sport and rediscover his childhood passion for the game, providing a much-needed sense of stability. As Hans becomes part of the team, he begins to rebuild his life and find his footing in the post-9/11 world.

The New York Times praised author Joseph O’Neill for his depiction. He ‘writes about cricket not with Beckettian economy, but with an insider’s knowledge and a metaphorical sweep,’ they said, hailing Neverland as ‘the first great American novel underpinned by a deep understanding of the complexity of spin bowling’.

Read about another novel on the list.

Netherland is among Jimmy So's five top 9/11 novels, Richard Tomlinson's top ten cricket scenes in fiction, and Brooke Hauser's six favorite books about immigrants.

--Marshal Zeringue