This week the Longlist was announced for the 2024 Booker Prize. After being disappointed by the Booker in the past few years, the 2024 Longlist is really exciting. I have already read and loved two of the titles and there are many more on my wish list. A few days ago I released my predictions of who might make the list and I managed to correctly guess (Huzzah!) four of the titles - marked with an asterix.
So let's take a quick look at the nominees:
This debut novel by Irish author Colin Barrett is set in Country Mayo, in a town called Ballina. Gabe and Stretch are small-time crooks who abduct Doll English in an effort to retrieve a drug debt. Doll's girlfriend Nicky just wants to find Doll and escape this town. The judges write: 'Wild Houses is a propulsive, darkly comic and superlatively written account of frustration and misadventure in a small Irish town.' While this is Barrett's first novel, he is an acclaimed short story writer, best known for his collection Homesickness (2022).
Eight teenage girls compete in a boxing championship in Nevada. In a rundown warehouse they face off against one another, each with their own reasons for getting in the ring. The judges describe Headshot as 'A gripping and gutsy depiction of a young women’s boxing tournament in Nevada. In a compelling series of interconnected snapshots, Bullwinkel weaves a tapestry around several diverse, steely characters, each with their own unique back stories, motivations and perspectives.' Bullwinkel is the author of the short story collection Belly Up (2022). Headshot is her first novel.
If James was not on the Longlist, I would have given up on the Booker forever. I loved this novel and it is my favourite to win every available prize. James is a satirical retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved man who travels along the Mississippi River with the young rascal Huck. The judges describe this as 'a captivating response to Mark Twain's classic that is a bold exploration of a dark chapter in history and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit'. Everett was previously shortlisted for the Booker in 2022 for his brilliant novel The Trees.
Six astronauts float high above the Earth at a space station where they conduct experiments on an extended mission. As they orbit the Earth, Harvey shares information about each astronaut showcasing their different pasts and their common present. The judges write 'Orbital offers us a love letter to our planet as well as a deeply moving acknowledgement of the individual and collective value of every human life.' Harvey was previously longlisted for the Booker in 2009 for The Wilderness.
Undercover agent Sadie Smith is sent to infiltrate a commune of eco-activists in France. She meets the communes charismatic leader Bruno Lacombe. The judges write 'what’s so electrifying about this novel is the way it knits contemporary politics and power with a deep counter-history of human civilisation. We found the prose thrilling, the ideas exciting, the book as a whole a profound and irresistible page-turner.’ Kushner's novel The Mars Room was shortlisted or the Booker in 2018.
Two Libyan teens meet at university in Edinburgh. They travel to London to participate in an anti-Qaddafi demonstration outside the Libyan embassy where both are wounded. The novel follows the relationship of the friends into adulthood, forever changed by what happened in London and their homeland. The judges write 'My Friends is both a complex and unsentimental meditation on what friendship means and a searingly moving exploration of how exile impacts those who are forced to live in this state of loss. It is a book that we loved for its spareness of language and its deeply affecting storytelling.’ Matar was previously shortlisted for the Booker in 2006 for In the Country of Men. I have heard such great things about this novel, I really want to read it.
In June 1940 Paris falls to the Germans. In Salonica, naval attache Gaston Cassar has sent his wife and children to Algeria to be safe. Instead of being welcomed home, the family find themselves unwanted by relatives. Over the next seventy years, Messud follows generations of Cassar's family as they scatter across the globe. The judges write 'epic in its scale, while intimately rooted in each character’s internal landscape, the novel reminds us how literature can be expansive and timeless.' Messud was previously longlisted for the Booker in 2006 for The Emperor's Children.
Spanning four generations, Held travels back and forth from a French battlefield in 1917 to 1930 in Yorkshire, and on through the ages. The judges write that Michaels is 'writing about war, trauma, science, faith and above all love and human connection; her canvas is a century of busy history, but she connects the fragments of her story through theme and image rather than character and chronology, intense moments surrounded by great gaps of space and time.' Michael is a Canadian poet and novelist who is best known for her 2020 novel Fugitive Pieces.
In this follow up to his acclaimed debut There There, Tommy Orange follows the descendants of the1864 Sand Creek massacre. Spanning centuries of Native American experience, Orange shows the intergenerational trauma of colonisation, addiction and loss. The judges write 'through well-crafted prose and deftly drawn perspectives, Tommy Orange paints a vivid portrait of the Native American experience – both the pain of displacement and the resilience of those who continue ancestral traditions.'
In a small Baptist community in Aldleigh, Essex, Thomas Hart is a fifty-something bachelor who writes a column for the local paper and yearns to see the world. Teenage Grace Macaulay is also restless, but tethered to the church. The two form an unlikely friendship. The judges write 'the novel takes its main characters – a middle-aged novelist and reporter for a local paper and the 17-year-old daughter of the local pastor – and weaves a novel of great ambition. This is a book of deep pleasures, full of passion for the life of ideas, richly and satisfyingly written.' Perry is best known for her novels Melmoth, The Essex Serpent and After Me Comes the Flood.
On the French Polynesian island of Makatea, a group plan to send floating, autonomous cities into the open sea. The ocean is the last place we have yet to colonise. The judges write 'this is a characterful, capacious and engaging novel, distilling subjects as diverse as oceanography, climate change, the legacies of colonialism and the arc of a lifelong friendship into an exhilaratingly entangled narrative in which Powers’ unparalleled gifts for revealing the magic and mystery of the natural world are on full display.' Powers is no stranger to the Booker Prize. He was longlisted in 2014 for Orfeo, and shortlisted twice - in 2018 for The Overstory and 2021 for Bewilderment.
Fifteen years after the end of World War II, the Netherlands is quiet and has been reconstructed. In a rural Dutch province, Isabel lives a peaceful life in her late mother's country home. When her brother Louis and his girlfriend Eva show up for an extended stay, Isabel's life is disrupted. The judges said that they 'loved this debut novel for its remarkable inhabitation of obsession. It navigates an emotional landscape of loss and return in an unforgettable way.' Dutch author van der Wouden is a lecturer in literature and creative writing.
I squealed with joy to learn Wood was longlisted for Stone Yard Devotional - a captivating novel by one of my favourite writers. The judges said 'a woman settles into a monastery in rural Australia and discovers that no shelter is impermeable. This novel thrilled and chilled the judges.' I loved this novel about a woman searching for solitude and is unnerved by three disruptive incursions. It has been many years since an Australian author made the Longlist. I had hoped Wood would have been recognised for her amazing novel The Natural Way of Things (2015), but I am I so pleased she has been longlisted and more people will be introduced to this gifted writer.
The Booker Prize Longlist is often a mixed bag of novels, but what I love about the Longlist is that it introduces me to many authors and books I do not know. Last year's Longlist didn't thrill me, but I am delighted by the 2024 list. Debut authors and Booker favourites mingle. This is also the first year in many where I have read some of the titles before the Longlist is announced.
Of all the titles, the ones I am interested in are those by Kushner, Matar, Messud, van der Wouden, and Harvey. If I could vote for a winner though, I would choose Everett's James!
The Shortlist will be announced on shortlist on 16 September 2024 and the winner on 12 November 2024. Better get reading!