Susan Choi

Once it had a glossy coat, it then got fed up and became even bigger.

I think it's possible that my strongest memory is so,

My son, my younger son, who's 18 years old, is in school in Germany right now and finishing up.

Actually, he's finishing up in a mere matter of days.

But in last November, he was in Germany and I had called him to tell him about this exciting event.

And I said, do you want to come to London for the Booker Prizes?

And he was like,

Sure, if you're paying for the ticket.

And so I said, well, what's your class schedule?

And he said, well, you know, I'm in intensive German Monday through Friday.

And I, you know, do you want to cut a class?

And he said, yeah, I'll cut Friday German.

The Booker Prize ceremony was Monday night.

So I bought him a ticket to fly over to London on Friday, and he would leave early Monday morning to go take German class.

And I don't know what we were thinking.

And the Booker Prize ceremony being Monday night as it was, he showed up in London with like a backpack and like sneakers and a tattered hoodie.

And then we all went out to brunch with Katie Kitamura, who's an amazing writer and another short lister.

author of Audition, her husband, Hari Kunzru, also an amazing writer, and Kiran Desai, who's also on the shortlist, and Elliot, my son.

And they said, oh, Elliot, isn't this amazing?

Like, what are you going to wear to the ceremony Monday night?