The shortlist is strikingly resistant to neatness. M John Harrison’s ‘The End of Everything’ places readers in a post-catastrophe Kent without fully explaining what happened. Mary Beard, who chaired the judging panel, argues that not always understanding precisely what is happening is part of the novel’s design. Marlon James’s ‘The Disappearers’, meanwhile, moves between different periods, voices and forms, including interviews and diary extracts.
