Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Rachel Kushner Makes The Man Booker Shortlist For ‘The Mars Room’

The 2018 Man Booker Prize announced on Thursday, September 20 that Rachel Kushner has made the short list for her novel “The Mars Room.”

Kushner’s book follows Romy Hall, a woman serving two consecutive life sentences in a California correctional facility. “The Mars Room” was lauded for its unsentimental portrait of prison life and its dark humor.

This isn’t the first time Kushner has received awards buzz. Both of her previous novels, 2013’s “The Flamethrowers” and 2008’s “Telex from Cuba” were finalists for a National Book Award.

A native of Eugene, OR and later San Francisco, Kushner is one of two Americans nominated this year along with Richard Powers for his book “The Overstory,” about activists trying to conserve a tract of virgin forest.

As The New York Times reports, until 2013, when it was ruled that any book written in English could be up for the award, Yankees were not eligible for the Man Booker, and their late inclusion has been the cause of some upsets. The winners of the past two years, George Saunders in 2017 for his first novel “Lincoln in the Bardo” and Paul Beatty in 2016 for “The Sellout,” are both American. Authors Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan and Margaret Atwood, who praised Kushner’s book, have since voiced their objection to the rule change.

Also on the list: Esi Edugyan’s “Washington Black” about an escaped slave from a Barbados plantation; Anna Burns’ “The Milkman” which depicts The Troubles in Ireland through the eyes of a young girl; and Daisy Johnson’s “Everything Under” about an unconventional mother-daughter reunion. At 27 Johnson is the youngest author to be shortlisted in the Man Booker’s history. Also making history is Robin Robertson, whose book “The Long Take” is the first novel written in verse to be nominated.

Since writing “The Mars Room” Kushner has been using her platform to push a message of prison reform, telling the Financial Times there is “no redemption” in the current system. The winner of the Man Booker will be announced on October 16.

PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture intern. He can be reached at [email protected].

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.