Women dominate 2024 Booker Prize shortlist

The 2024 Booker Prize shortlist has been revealed, showcasing a historic achievement with women dominating the list for the first time in the prize’s 55-year history. Five out of the six shortlisted authors are women, representing a diverse array of nations, including the Netherlands for the first time.

This year’s finalists include Canadian author Anne Michaels, who previously won the Women’s Prize, American Percival Everett, and British writer Samantha Harvey. Each shortlisted author receives £2,500, with the ultimate winner, to be announced on November 12, set to receive £50,000. The prestigious Booker Prize is awarded to a work of fiction written in English by any author globally and published in the UK or Ireland.

The 2024 shortlist features:

• James by Percival Everett (US)
• Orbital by Samantha Harvey (UK)
• Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (US)
• Held by Anne Michaels (Canada)
• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Netherlands)
• Stone Yard Devotion by Charlotte Wood (Australia)

Percival Everett and Rachel Kushner are both previous Booker Prize contenders. Everett’s James reimagines Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the viewpoint of Jim, the runaway slave. Meanwhile, Kushner’s Creation Lake is a spy thriller about an American woman who infiltrates a radical anarchist group in rural France.

Edmund de Waal, the chair of the judging panel, praised the shortlisted novels for their impact, describing them as “dog-eared, scribbled in” and reflecting serious literary merit. He remarked that the books were so engaging they inspired a strong desire to keep reading and discussing them, capturing the essence of “storytelling in which people confront the world in all its instability and complexity.”

Samantha Harvey’s Orbital provides a unique perspective by following a team of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The shortlist also includes The Safekeep, a debut novel by Yael van der Wouden. This queer love story, set in post-Nazi Netherlands, follows a lonely woman whose life changes dramatically when a guest arrives at her countryside home.

Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotion delves into themes of female friendship through the story of a middle-aged woman who isolates herself in a New South Wales convent. Wood noted that the novel is a blend of personal experiences and fictional elements, inspired by her own life and childhood. This is the first time in a decade that an Australian writer has been shortlisted.

Anne Michaels’ Held, her third novel, explores a family saga through the memories of four generations, examining themes of past instability and memory. The judges commended it for its profound exploration of these large themes.

Sara Collins, one of the judges, expressed surprise at the predominance of female authors on the shortlist, noting that it was an unexpected but gratifying outcome. She highlighted the achievement, reflecting on the traditionally male-dominated nature of literary recognition despite the significant presence of women in publishing.

The final shortlist was chosen from 13 long-listed titles, known as the Booker dozen, which were selected from 156 books published between October 2023 and September 2024. The judging panel includes The Guardian’s fiction editor Justine Jordan, writer Yiyun Li, and musician Nitin Sawhney.

Last year, the Booker Prize was awarded to Paul Lynch of Ireland for Prophet Song, a dystopian novel envisioning a totalitarian Ireland.