The Booker Prize Shortlist was announced at Somerset House on Monday (16 September), with religion, climate change, and race among the key themes tackled by the selected titles, and the largest number of women represented in its 55-year history.
Five of the six-strong shortlist are women, with authors from five countries represented, including the Netherlands for the first time.
The list includes former Women’s Prize winner Anne Michaels, American writer Percival Everett and British author Samantha Harvey. Each of the six shortlisted authors receives a £2,500 prize and a bespoke bound edition of their book. They are also likely to enjoy a significant uptick in sales owing to the vast publicity surrounding the Booker Prize. The winner, announced on 12 November, will win £50,000. The prestigious prize is open to works of fiction written in English by authors anywhere in the world and published in the UK or Ireland.
The shortlist in full:
James – Percival Everett (US)
Orbital – Samantha Harvey (UK)
Creation Lake – Rachel Kushner (US)
Held – Anne Michaels (Canada)
The Safekeep – Yael van der Wouden (Netherlands)
Stone Yard Devotion – Charlotte Wood (Australia)
Common themes among this year’s selected titles are those which transport readers around the world, out of the Earth’s atmosphere, and across time.
The list features mostly established writers, with only one debut author making an appearance. It’s a distinct change from the 2023 shortlist in which only debut authors were selected, including last year’s winner Paul Lynch, who won for his book Prophet Song.
There is one British author on this year’s list, Samantha Harvey. Australian, Dutch, American, and Canadian writers also appear. Harvey, the only British writer to make the shortlist, was selected for Orbital, which follows six astronauts aboard the International Space Station across the course of 24 hours. Two of the novelists, Percival Everett and Rachel Kushner, have previously been short-listed for the award.
Everett’s James is a retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written from the perspective of the runaway slave, Jim.
Kushner’s Creation Lake is a spy thriller which sees an American woman infiltrate a radical anarchist collective in rural France. Orbital, by Samantha Harvey, contemplates the world from a different viewpoint as her novel follows a team of astronauts in the International Space Station. Also exploring female friendships is Stone Yard Devotion.
Charlotte Woods’ novel is about a middle-aged woman who retreats from the world to a convent in New South Wales. It’s the first time in 10 years that an Australian novelist has made the short list.
Held, which is Anna Michaels’ third novel, is a family saga which explores the memories of four generations. Along with Lynch, recent winners of the Booker prize include Shehan Karunatilaka, Damon Galgut, Douglas Stuart, along with Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo, who co-won the prize in 2019.
