pickI thought the concept was brilliant and original. Without giving anything away, I found myself wanting to save the characters. No, go left, don't call....
The paranoia was intense. I assume immigrants, whether Albanian or Guatemalan, live with daily paranoia. I don't assume, I know. They have to keep a low-key profile ALL the time. Who is safe? Who will help? The exhaustion.
After I post, I plan to look at other reviews.
pickWhite US male has mild midlife crisis and takes a roadtrip whilst re-evaluating his life and thinking a LOT about basketball. Everything is so mundane and unexceptional, it is both realistic and dreary. Very readable and I enjoyed all but the technical basketball talk. This is so American I would expect it to be a Pulitzer candidate (except Greer already won with a funnier version), but I am surprised to see it on the #Booker shortlist. Soft pick.
so-soTom promised that he would divorce his wife as soon as their youngest left for college after finding out about her affair. He drops off Miri at her dorm and just keeps driving.
This was an interesting book because the ending gives you a lot to think about. It takes a while to find the interesting parts, because not a lot of interesting things happen in the story, but at the end I felt that I was following someone's real life.
3.5⭐️
pickMiddle-aged middle-class man takes a midlife-crisis road trip. I‘m being snarky; this is a sweet book with an engaging narrative voice, and sums up well the uncertainties of this time of life from the male perspective. However re the Booker shortlisting, this one doesn‘t quite get there for me - SURELY the midlife-road-trip-crisis novel of the year must be All Fours? I am intrigued and puzzled as to why this would be chosen over that👇
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️ Story of an Albanian woman living in NYC, working as an interpreter, married to an American. She gets overly involved in the lives of other Southeastern European immigrants, straining her relationships. It had momentum but then the end just sort of petered off. It felt like nothing resolved, which left me wondering what the point was of picking it up at all. 🤷♀️ Between a soft pick and a so-so. #BookerLongList
pickThis feels like a Woman's Prize book. I would not be surprised to see this on their list next year.
I think putting it on the Booker list was a mistake, but I personally really enjoyed it. I thought it gave a great overview of T&T from the 70-90s Though it was an incredibly White view that the author could have addressed better.
As someone who was left at a hospital in 1980, and who was adopted, I found this incredibly interesting on that front.
pick29 Sep-10 Oct 2025
#Bookerlonglist2025 No 13
An impressive debut, Xhoga follows the life of an Albanian interpreter living in NYC. The narrator reminded me a great deal of a family friend from Bulgaria who seemed to take in all kinds of Eastern European strays (before the fall of the iron curtain) much to the dismay of her conservative, ENT husband.
The tension and underlying violence Xhoga creates is remarkable and disarming. Another great novel.
panI almost bailed but by skipping a part of the middle and then parts of the end I was able to persevere. Dull, dreary, endless waffle. This book has nothing going for it, none of the characters are engaging or interesting and despite desperately trying to say something relevant it fails abysmally. Do yourself a favour and avoid this book.
pickIt‘s 9 yrs since Teresa lost her mom, and now after having lost her dad, she returns to the Greek village. The thing is, we‘re told this on the blurb, but after having read the book the Greeks she meets doesn‘t know
When she returns she tries to reconnect with the people she met the last time, but as she finds out nothing stays the same and people change
I enjoyed meeting Niko, Xanthe and especially Petros
