The Booker Prize Shortlist is revealed: featuring lots of women, a sense of community, and the first shortlisted Dutch writer

September 16 saw the release of the much-anticipated Booker Prize Shortlist, live from Somerset House, London. Making history for including the first Dutch author to be shortlisted, and including the most female authors in 55 years, this year’s Booker list shocked and united many. Many bookie favourites for the award, including the British-Libyan entry My Friends by Hisham Matar, did not make the Shortlist, but Samantha Harvey’s Orbital is Britain’s only offering left in contention. Before the ceremony started, I noted my predication for the list, based only on synopsis, and had correctly guessed two. Edmund de Waal, before announcing the authors, spoke about the community that reading creates and described all the books as being well loved and travelled that they were “a Librarian’s lament”. The winner of the prestigious title wins £50,000 yet all shortlisted authors receive £2,500 and a special-bound edition of their book. They also win a place in the community of book-lovers that this award generates.

“Here is storytelling in which people confront the world in all its instability and complexity.”

Edmund de Waal, Chair of the Booker Prize 2024

Watching the livestream on YouTube, I saw comments from a world-wide audience coming together to compare favourites and complain about the connection problems. The importance of the Booker Prize is more than notability, as my article on the Longlist suggested, but about the community of book-lovers that are brought together. They are brought together on livestreams, on BookTok (on TikTok), and BookTube (on YouTube) in the name of new fictions that tell compelling stories. There is the annual trend of attempting to read the Shortlist before the winner is announced on November 12^th which I will be attempting this year. Six books, just under two months, a total of 1607 pages – how hard can it be?

Six books, just under two months, a total of 1607 pages – how hard can it be?

An exclusive quality to the community created is cost, as all fictions nominated are published in the last year and retailing between £9.99 and £16.99 in bookstores. This prohibits some readers from joining in, after the UK experienced a recent cost of living crisis and creates a sense of literary hierarchy among book readers. One that has been fought hard by literary foundations, discount book shops and social media to combat. Despite this, the community came together to watch the livestream and heard these books had made the Shortlist.

The Safe Keep by Yael Van Der Wouden

A novel set in Overjissel (a Dutch Province), in the aftermath of World War Two blossoms into a heart-warming queer love story following Isabel, and her brother’s fiancé Eva. The only Dutch entry, by Van Der Wouden, is the only debut novel on the shortlist.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Britain’s offering of a day aboard the International Space Station has already been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Harvey, a lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, was previously longlisted in 2009 for Wilderness.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

A spy thriller with a mixture of remote France, espionage and radical eco-activists, Creation Lake is the only spy novel on the Shortlist. Kushner, previously shortlisted in 2018 for The Mars Room, is a hugely successful American writer with her works translated into 27 languages.

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

A poignant story where life in Sydney is given up for a religious retreat in rural Australia, exploring grief and friendship. Wood was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019.

James by Percival Everett

This retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the escaped enslaved person Jim, is not only the bookie’s favourite to win, but also the only male writer to make the Shortlist. Everett is a Professor of English at the University of Southern California and was previously shortlisted in 2022 for The Trees.

Held by Anne Michaels

Canada’s offering for this year is a multi-generational narrative that starts in 1917 with a British soldier returning home from war. Michaels is a highly celebrated writer and is a Guggenheim Fellow.

The ceremony announcing the winner will be livestreamed on Instagram, YouTube, and a special edition of Radio 4’s Front Row. It will be streamed from Old Billingsgate, London on the 12 November 2024, and will be watched by thousands.  I will, like with the Shortlist, be predicting a winner and am excited to get reading this diverse Shortlist.