Women dominate 2024 Booker Prize shortlist

The Booker Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and this year, it has made history by featuring the highest number of women on its shortlist in its 55-year existence. The shortlist for the 2024 Booker Prize has been revealed, and out of the six authors nominated, five are women, representing a diverse range of countries, including the Netherlands, which is being recognized for the first time. Among the notable authors on the list are Anne Michaels, a previous winner of the Women's Prize, Percival Everett from the United States, and Samantha Harvey from the UK. Each author on the shortlist will receive £2,500, while the winner, who will be announced on 12 November, will take home a substantial prize of £50,000. The Booker Prize is open to works of fiction written in English by authors from around the globe, provided that their books are published in the UK or Ireland. The complete shortlist includes 'James' by Percival Everett, 'Orbital' by Samantha Harvey, 'Creation Lake' by Rachel Kushner, 'Held' by Anne Michaels, 'The Safekeep' by Yael van der Wouden, and 'Stone Yard Devotion' by Charlotte Wood. Percival Everett's 'James' is a reimagining of Mark Twain's classic 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn', told from the perspective of Jim, a runaway slave. Rachel Kushner's 'Creation Lake' is a gripping spy thriller that follows an American woman who infiltrates a radical anarchist group in rural France. Edmund de Waal, the chair of the judging panel, expressed his admiration for the six shortlisted novels, stating, 'My copies of these novels are dog-eared, scribbled in. They have been carried everywhere – surely the necessary measure of a seriously good novel. ' He emphasized that these books are not only engaging but also inspire readers to share their thoughts and feelings about them. 'Here is storytelling in which people confront the world in all its instability and complexity,' he added. Samantha Harvey's 'Orbital' offers a unique perspective as it follows a team of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The shortlist also features a debut novel, 'The Safekeep' by Yael van der Wouden, which tells a queer love story set in the post-Nazi era in the Netherlands, where a lonely young woman's life is turned upside down when she has a guest at her country home. Additionally, 'Stone Yard Devotion' by Charlotte Wood explores themes of female friendship, focusing on a middle-aged woman who retreats to a convent in New South Wales. Wood mentioned that her story was inspired by elements of her own life, combined with a fictional narrative about a religious community. This marks the first time in a decade that an Australian author has made it to the shortlist. 'Held', which is Anne Michaels' third novel, is a family saga that delves into the memories of four generations. The judges praised its exploration of significant themes such as the instability of the past and the nature of memory. One of the judges, novelist Sara Collins, remarked on the surprising presence of five women on the shortlist, stating, 'It was a genuine surprise to us. We came up with the shortlist, we sat back and looked at the pile and someone said: ‘Ha, there are five women there. ’ She added, 'These books rose to the top on merit - they are tremendous books but… it was such a gratifying, surprising, thrilling moment to realize. ' Collins also noted that while women dominate certain levels of publishing, literary recognition has often seemed to favor men. The final six books were chosen from a long list of 13 titles, known as the Booker dozen, which were selected from a total of 156 books published between October 2023 and September 2024. The judging panel also includes Justine Jordan, fiction editor at The Guardian, writer Yiyun Li, and musician Nitin Sawhney. Last year, the Booker Prize was awarded to Paul Lynch from Ireland for his novel 'Prophet Song', which presents a dystopian vision of Ireland under totalitarian rule.