Is the Booker buzz now about anticipation rather than just literary suspense?

Three of the 13 books on the longlist for this year’s Booker prize are not yet published. Two of them are by literary big-hitters. ‘The Testaments’ by Margaret Atwood and ‘Quichotte’ by Salman Rushdie.

Rushdie’s novel isn’t published until August 29 and Atwood’s won’t be in my hands (my Kindle really) until September 10.

The sense of anticipation is keen. ‘The Testaments’ is the sequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. Set 15 years after the end of that book, it follows the lives of three women in Gilead. As ‘The Guardian’ noted, it is likely to be “one of the biggest books of the year”.

The suspense is building. Some of it will dissipate after ‘Quichotte’ and ‘The Testaments’ become available to readers. Then, there will be a month before we learn the decision of the Booker judges.