This year’s Booker Prize shortlist features a diverse array of novels by authors spanning continents that confront the ‘conflicts of identity, race, and sexuality’
The 2024 Booker Prize shortlist has been announced, featuring six novels, five of which are written by women — a record-breaking number in the prize’s 55-year history. The shortlisted authors include Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, Anne Michaels, Samantha Harvey, Charlotte Wood, and Yael van der Wouden. The list was revealed during an event at Somerset House in London on Monday (September 16). This year’s judging panel is chaired by artist and author Edmund de Waal; he is joined by novelists Sara Collins, Yiyun Li, The Guardian fiction editor Justine Jordan, and musician Nitin Sawhney.
The shortlisted titles may not be “books about issues” but they explore “the fault lines of our times,” said jury chair de Waal. “Here is storytelling in which people confront the world in all its instability and complexity. Borders and time zones and generations are crossed and explored, conflicts of identity, race, and sexuality are brought into renewed focus through memorable voices,” de Waal remarked. The six shortlisted works showcase the artistic breadth of contemporary fiction, offering readers worlds as varied as an isolated Dutch house in the 1960s to the International Space Station, while grounding their explorations in deep emotional truths. The prize, which celebrates the best fiction written in English and published in the UK or Ireland, will be awarded on November 12, with the winner receiving £50,000. Each of the six finalists will receive £2,500.
Five women among six shortlisted writers
Samantha Harvey is the only British author on the list, whose novel Orbital, follows six astronauts aboard the International Space Station over 24 hours. The judges praised her imaginative exploration of language and vivid depiction of life in space. Percival Everett, an American writer, was shortlisted for James, a retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved character, Jim. His novel is both a critique and celebration of the original work that addresses the realities of slavery with humour.
Canadian author Anne Michaels is shortlisted for her third novel, Held, which spans four generations, beginning with a wounded soldier on a French battlefield. Rachel Kushner, from the US, earned her place on the list with Creation Lake, a story about a spy infiltrating an eco-activist commune. Australian writer Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional, about a woman who leaves Sydney for a remote religious community, also made the shortlist, marking the first time in a decade an Australian author has been shortlisted. Similarly, Yael van der Wouden is the first-ever Dutch author to be shortlisted for her novel The Safekeep about two women in post-WWII Netherlands that fails to reckon with the fate of Dutch Jews.
Here is a look at the six novels on the shortlist:
1. James by Percival Everett (USA): A provocative re-imagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, James turns a classic American narrative on its head. Everett, a literary veteran with over 30 published works, revisits the world of Huck Finn through a contemporary lens, injecting themes of morality, identity, and justice into the novel. The judges praised James for subverting genre conventions and offering a sharp critique of historical and modern-day power dynamics. “Everett takes a narrative familiar to many and deconstructs it with wit and intensity,” said the panel, calling it a “masterful reimagining that compels us to reflect on the nature of freedom.”
2. Orbital by Samantha Harvey (UK): Harvey’s Orbital propels readers to the International Space Station, but its ambitions go beyond science fiction. Orbital is a deeply human exploration of our place in the universe, written not as speculative fiction but as realism. Harvey captures the beauty and solitude of space, infusing the novel with a reverence that evokes nature writing. The judges described Orbital as a “space pastoral,” blending the vastness of the cosmos with personal introspection. “It offers us a vision of our planet as borderless and interlinked,” they remarked, “blurring distinctions between borders, time zones, and individual lives.”
3. Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (USA): In Creation Lake, Kushner delves into a remote French outpost, where a group of young revolutionaries collides with the forces of the state. Famed for her audacious narrative voice, Kushner intertwines historical and contemporary narratives, examining both the mysteries of human origins and the fraught nature of individual identity. The novel’s tension is not only in the political struggle but also in the existential question of what it means to be human. “A novel of ideas, wrapped in a page-turning thriller,” the judges noted, praising Kushner’s ability to create a rich, multi-layered narrative.
4. Held by Anne Michaels (Canada): Known for her poetic prose, Michaels’ Held is a meditation on trauma, memory, and love. Set against the backdrop of the First World War, the novel is a testament to the lasting impact of personal and collective loss. The novel’s emotional depth is underscored by Michaels’ lyricism, as she explores the quiet, yet profound, reverberations of history on individual lives. “This is a novel that insists on the importance of our inner worlds — of what we love, value, and believe — even amidst the chaos of history,” said the judges.
5. The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Netherlands): In The Safekeep, van der Wouden crafts a razor-sharp debut that draws readers into the lives of two women inhabiting a remote Dutch house in the 1960s. As tensions between them build, secrets emerge, and the novel becomes a claustrophobic psychological exploration of trust and betrayal. The first Dutch author to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize, van der Wouden’s debut impressed the judges with its precision and emotional intensity. “A perfectly plotted debut, The Safekeep delivers suspense and psychological depth in equal measure,” the judges commented.
6. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (Australia): Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional ruminates on faith, suffering, and redemption, set in a rural Australian retreat. In sparse, yet beautiful prose, Wood confronts the realities of aging, grief, and spiritual searching. The judges described it as a “mature work that does not flinch from life’s hardest truths,” noting its ability to “convey beauty even in despair.” As the first Australian shortlisted in 10 years, Wood brings a unique perspective to the 2024 shortlist, exploring universal themes through a deeply personal lens.
