Book Review: “If I Survive You” by Jonathan Escoffery
<p>Jonathan Escoffery’s groundbreaking and trailblazing debut, <em>If I Survive You</em>, is a book that has come with a boatload of hype. It’s not really a novel, because it is a series of eight interlinked short stories. But it’s also not a short story collection, either, as the stories overlap and inform one another. As a result, this concoction has earned the attention of juries for some major awards. The book is currently on the longlist for the Booker Prize (and you don’t get awards that come much greater than that), with the shortlist to be announced later in September. <em>If I Survive You</em> has also been a finalist for the 2023 Pen/Faulkner Award, the Southern Book Prize, and the Caliba Golden Poppy Award. Additionally, it has been nominated for the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction, the 2022 National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the 2023 Pen/Jean Stein Open Book Award, the 2023 Pen/Bingham Prize, the 2022 Story Prize, the 2023 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and the 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize.</p>
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