The Man Booker Prize Committee has published the list of finalists for the UK’s top literary award. The list includes the traditional six books. This is reported on the prize’s website, Komersant ukrainskyi
informs
The shortlisted authors come from five different countries. For the first time, a work by a Dutch writer was shortlisted, and for the first time in 10 years, an Australian writer is applying for the prize. Two of the shortlisted writers have already been shortlisted for the Prize before.
The shortlist consists of works that transport readers around the world and beyond the Earth’s atmosphere: from the battles of World War I to a spiritual retreat in the Australian countryside; from the deep South of America in the 19th century to a remote Dutch home in the 1960s; from the International Space Station to a network of caves beneath the French countryside.
“Among other things, the shortlisted books explore the gravitational pull of home and family; the contradictory nature of truth and history; and the extent to which we open ourselves up to others,” the prize organisers said in a statement.
The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2024:
- James by Percival Everett, USA;
- Orbital by Samantha Harvey, UK;
- Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner, USA;
- Held, Anne Michaels, Canada;
- The Safekeep, Yael van der Wooden, The Netherlands;
- Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood, Australia.
As stated in the announcement, the six finalists were selected by the jury from 156 works submitted for consideration and published between 1 October 2023 and 30 September 2024.
This year’s jury is chaired by artist and writer Edmund de Waal.
Other members of the jury include writer Sarah Collins, Guardian fiction editor Justin Jordan, writer and professor Yiyun Li, and musician, composer and producer Nitin Sawhney.
The winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize 2024 will be announced at a ceremony on 12 November 2024 at the Old Billingsgate in London.