2024 Booker Prize Longlist: Get over John Green and Colleen Hoover, here's your next pick
The Booker Prize has finally unveiled its highly anticipated longlist for 2024, featuring a diverse selection of thirteen novels; check them out
After many months spent in discussion, the Booker Prize has finally released its much-awaited longlist for 2024. The Booker's Dozen is selected by a panel of 5 influential names in the literary industry: artist and author Edmund de Waal, award-winning novelist Sara Collins, Fiction Editor of the Guardian, Justine Jordan, writer and professor Yiyun Li and composer and producer Nitin Sawhney.
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Tommy Orange's piercing follow-up to his classic There There follows a multitude of characters over two centuries starting from the Sand Creek Massacre of 1865 against the Native Americans, to the aftermath of a shooting in the 21st century.
Star, a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is forced into assimilation at Fort Marion Prison Castle by Richard Henry Pratt, who later founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Years later, Star's son Charles faces similar brutality at the school and bonds with fellow student, Opal Viola.
In Oakland, 2018, Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield struggles to keep her family together after a shooting that nearly killed her nephew Orvil. Orvil becomes obsessed with school shootings and relies on medication for trauma, while his brother suffering from PTSD, secretly cuts himself, seeking a connection to their Cheyenne heritage. Opal experiments with Ceremony and peyote, searching for healing for her wounded family.
What the judges have to say: “This centuries-spanning epic paints a vivid portrait of the Native American experience in a society that often fails to recognise the value of its Indigenous people.”
Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
A contemporary crime masterpiece, this book opens with a not-so-simple kidnapping in the small town of Ballina, Ireland. County Mayo's fraternal enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, kidnap small-time dealer Cillian English's sullen, teenage brother Doll. They take him to cousin Dev, who is unwillingly coerced into holding the hostage at his house while Doll's teenage girlfriend can't shake the feeling that something bad has happened to her boyfriend, even as she questions her future in Ballina.
What the judges have to say: “A darkly comic account of frustration and misadventure in a small Irish town. A slow-burn study of character and fate that’s also an edge-of-your-seat thriller.”
Held by Anne Michaels
This historical fiction novel starts with John, unable to move or feel his legs lying in the aftermath of a blast. The story follows him and his family as they build his photography business, haunted by inescapable ghosts of emotional and physical scars interspersed with moments of desire, comprehension and longing that transcends through four decades. The novel explores not only their actions but also their feelings and perceptions investigating the complex semantics of human emotion.
What the judges have to say: “A kaleidoscopic novel about war, trauma, science, faith and, above all, love and human connection. Reading it seems to alter your state of mind.”
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
American undercover agent Sadie Smith is sent by her mysterious employers to a remote corner of France in this seductive and cunning novel. Her mission: to infiltrate a commune of radical eco-activists led by the charismatic Bruno Lacombe. In this region of centuries-old farms and ancient caves, Sadie becomes entranced by Bruno who believes that the path to emancipation is not revolt, but a return to the ancient past. Rachel Kushner is also a two-time National Book Award finalist.
What the judges have to say: “A profound and irresistible page-turner about a spy-for-hire who infiltrates a commune of eco-activists in rural France. The prose is thrilling, the ideas electrifying.”
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud
This historical fiction novel was inspired in part by Messud's own family's history. Following the lives of the Cassar family over seven decades from 1940 to 2010, This Strange Eventful History brings together eccentric individuals born on the wrong side of history: patriarch Gaston who left for war and his wife Lucienne waiting for his return, devoted yet strange siblings François and Denise, culturally different Barbra and their child, Chloe, in a profoundly intimate tale amid the social and political upheaval of the recent past.
What the judges have to say: “Epic in its scale, yet intimate in its detail, this compelling, timeless novel follows three generations of a Franco-Algerian family in their migrations around the world.”
Playground by Richard Powers
Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory, Playground is set in the world’s largest ocean, on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, marked for humanity’s next great adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out into the open sea.
Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Elsewhere, Rafi and Todd are two polar opposites who bond over a 3,000-year-old board game. Meanwhile, Ina Aroita grows up in naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home.
What the judges have to say: “Polynesian islanders prepare to vote on a billionaire’s seasteading project in an exhilarating novel that distils subjects as diverse as climate change and colonialism.”
Enlightenment by Sarah Perry
In this science fiction love story, Thomas and Grace, two improbable best friends cope with their commitment to religion and their desire to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community together. But their friendship is threatened by the arrival of love; as Thomas develops an obsession with a vanished nineteenth-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, Grace flees Aldleigh, Essex entirely for London after a traumatic rendezvous.
What the judges have to say: “A quiet novel of deep pleasures set in small-town Essex – and an ambitious exploration of the heavens, comets, faith, ghosts and love.”
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Orbital is the story of six women and men hurtling through space around our planet. These astronauts and cosmonauts — from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan — have left their lives behind to travel around the earth. News like the death of a mother or an impending typhoon surfaces on occasion, giving us a snapshot of their earthly lives as they create bonds and familiar routines to save them from utter solitude.
What the judges have to say: “Six astronauts observe Earth’s splendour while navigating bereavement, loneliness and mission fatigue. Compact yet beautifully expansive, this is a love letter to our planet.”
James by Percival Everett
In a retelling of the beloved Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, James follows the point of view of James — Miss Watson's slave, who escapes to Jackson Island after overhearing that he is about to be sold to an owner in New Orleans. There he meets Huck Finn, and as the unlikely duo begin to navigate the treacherous waters of the Mississippi River on a raft, they must fight against their conspicuous demise and hope for salvation in the free states beyond.
What the judges have to say: “A captivating response to Mark Twain’s classic that is both a bold exploration of a dark chapter in history and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.”
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
The year is 1961 and in the rural Dutch province of Overijssel, Isabel leads her life by routine and discipline. But everything changes when her brother brings his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, to stay for the season. Eva is Isabel’s antithesis and as things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral; the shift from paranoia to infatuation is infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex. Everything is exactly as it seems until it isn't.
What the judges have to say: “A remarkable debut about obsession and loss, set in an isolated Netherlands house. The author draws us into a world as carefully calibrated as a Dutch still-life.”
My Friends by Hisham Matar
Written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return, My Friends explores the emotional tale of two friends and a writer as they come together after participating in a demonstration that leaves them wounded and their lives forever changed. They confront agonising tensions between revolution and safety, family and exile and the existential task of defining the self against the other.
What the judges have to say: “A complex and powerful meditation on what friendship means and a moving exploration of how exile impacts those forced to navigate a world where they cannot rest.”
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
The story follows a burnt-out, middle-aged woman who takes refuge in a small religious community hidden away on the plains of the Australian outback. She doesn’t believe in God or know what prayer is and finds herself living a strange, reclusive existence almost by accident.
Her life is disrupted by three strange occurrences: a terrible mouse plague, the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before and a troubling visitor who plunges the narrator further back into her past.
What the judges have to say: “A woman settles into a monastery in rural Australia and discovers that no shelter is impermeable. This novel thrilled and chilled the judges.”
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel
Rita's debut novel is the story of eight teenage girl boxers in the United States, told over two days of a championship tournament in Nevada. Each of the girls has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come this far. Told in a series of face-offs, the author animates the competitors’ pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win.
What the judges have to say: “A gutsy, unflinching depiction of a young women’s boxing tournament in Nevada and a profound examination of identity, destiny and family dynamics.”
The 2024 Booker Prize longlist showcases an array of talent and storytelling, with novels spanning diverse genres and themes. This comprehensive list sets the stage for an exciting journey towards the announcement of the ultimate winner.