
The Booker Prizes celebrates the world’s most outstanding fiction, whether written in or translated into English, and each month they shine a spotlight on a different book from the Booker Library.
This month they are celebrating John Banville’s The Sea with a reading guide, an extract, an exclusive interview and a chance to win a copy of the book. Access the Booker Monthly Spotlight today
We will be sharing the Booker Prizes Monthly Spotlight for you to enjoy each month.
Introducing the Booker Prizes January Monthly Spotlight: The Sea by John Banville
The Sea was Banville’s 13th novel and triumphed in a year that featured a shortlist packed with literary heavyweights – including Zadie Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro, Julian Barnes, Ali Smith and Sebastian Barry.
In Banville’s novel, an art historian attempts to escape a recent loss while confronting a trauma from a long-lost summer. Led back to Ballyless by a dream, Max Morden returns to the coastal town where he spent a holiday in his youth. The Grace family appeared that long-ago summer as if from another world. Drawn to the twins, Chloe and Myles, Max soon found himself entangled in their lives, which were as seductive as they were unsettling. What ensued haunts him for the rest of his years and shapes everything that is to follow.
The Booker Prizes are offering a reading guide for The Sea, an extract, an exclusive interview and the chance to win a copy of the book and a Booker Prize tote bag.
The International Booker Prize 2025
The Booker Prizes have announced the dates for this year’s International Booker Prize alongside the 2025 judging panel.
Find out more here.
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