The Long Take: Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize

Wondrous . . . Probably the best novel of the yearEconomist, Books of the Year

The Long Take is like a film noir on the page. A book about a man and a city in shock, it’s an extraordinary evocation of the debris and ongoing destruction of war even in times of peace. In taking a scenario we think we know from the movies but offering a completely different perspective, Robin Robertson shows the flexibility a poet can bring to form and style.Man Booker judges’ citation

A beautiful, vigorous and achingly melancholy hymn to the common man that is as unexpected as it is daring . . . The Long Take is a masterly work of art, exciting, colourful, fast-paced – the old-time movie reviewer’s vocabulary is apt to the case – and almost unbearably moving.John Banville, Guardian

‘Absolutely stunning...his beautiful verse describes things better than any picture could... The language is astonishing.’Arifa Akbar, Front Row