The Booker Prize’s shortlist has been announced, and as always, each entry is laden with polemical and current societal commentaries. But why does this prize champion liberation? Perhaps due to its colonial past and problematic present.

Black history month is often misconstrued as an event only limited to October and often hijacked for good PR. How, then, can we as readers become more educated, informed and critical of the books we read and how they interact with Black lives?