I’m thrilled to be in stellar company’ Adébáyo reacts as she makes Booker Prize longlist

Ayobami Adebayo has made the longlist of the 2023 Booker Prize for her second novel ‘A Spell of Good Things’.

‘A Spell of Good Things’ was published earlier this year in the United Kingdom by Canongate, in the United States by Knopf, and in Nigeria by Ouida Books.

With this feat, Adebayo is the only African on this year’s Booker Prize longlist, the fifth Nigerian to be longlisted for the prize after Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri, Oyinkan Braithwaite, and Chigozie Obioma – and, if she wins, she will be the second Nigerian winner after Ben Okri.

Adebayo, excited about the longlist, posted on Instagram: “‘A Spell of Good Things’ has been longlisted for the Booker Prize! Thrilled to be in stellar company.”

Adebayo’s husband, Emmanuel Iduma – who is a lawyer, writer, and art critic – on Instagram, said the book deserves the special honour.

“All those years of multiple drafts!” Iduma said. “This is a novel closest to the magnanimity of her compassion for Nigeria.”

The 2023 Booker Prize judges described it, ‘As a Spell of Good Things’ – which examines class and desire in modern-day Nigeria – as “a powerful, staggering read.”

The judges noted that the 13 books on this year’s longlist are all linked by the quality of their storytelling, but that there are also other things the books have in common.

Adebayo’s other books include: ‘Stay with Me’ (2017), ‘Spent Lives’ (2019), and ‘Clarion Calls’ (2021).

In 2017, he won The Future Awards Africa Prize for Arts and Culture. ‘Stay with Me’ won the 9mobile Prize for Literature and Prix Les Afriques, and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize and the Wellcome Book Prize.

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