Booker Prize 2024 Shortlist Features Most Women In Its 55-Year History

Women are dominating the Booker Prize 2024 shortlist for the first time in its 55-year history, with five out of six selected authors being female. Moreover, Yael van der Wouden, who wrote The Safekeep, is making history as the first author from the Netherlands to be chosen. The list includes former Women's Prize winner Anne Michaels from Canada, British author Samantha Harvey, Australia's Charlotte Wood, and American authors Percival Everett and Rachel Kushner.

Booker Prize 2024 Shortlist

On September 16, the Booker Prize organisers announced the marvellous news about women dominating the shortlist for fiction this year. They chose the final shortlist from 13 long-listed books, known as the Booker dozen, which were selected from 156 books published between October 2023 and September 2024.

Here is the full shortlist:

• Orbital by Samantha Harvey (UK)

Samantha Harvey's Orbital views the world from the eyes of a team of astronauts in the International Space Station for 24 hours. As they circle the Earth, watching ginormous countries look like a speck on a globe, they experience profound contemplations.

• Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (US)

Rachel Kushner, who is no stranger to being shortlisted for the Booker, brings forth a spy thriller in Creation Lake. The book follows an American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in rural France.

• Held by Anne Michaels (Canada)

Anna Michaels' third novel, Held, is a family saga that explores the memories of four generations. The Booker judges praised the themes of "the instability of the past and memory," in the book.

• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Netherlands)

In The Safekeep, debut author Yael van der Wouden explores a queer love story in the post Nazi-era in the Netherlands. The book follows a lonely young woman's life upended when she has a guest to stay at her country home.

• Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (Australia)

Stone Yard Devotional, which explores the theme of female friendship, is about a woman who retreats from the world to a convent in New South Wales. Charlotte Wood said that the story "grew from elements of my own life and childhood merging with an entirely invented story about an enclosed religious community". Wood is the first Australian in 10 years to be shortlisted for the Booker.

• James by Percival Everett (US)

Percival Everett, who has also been shortlisted for the Booker before, introduces a retelling of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in her novel, James. He spotlights the perspective of the runaway slave, Jim.

Each short-listed author receives £2,500 (over ₹2.75 lakh) and the winner, who would be announced on 12 November, would win £50,000 (Over ₹55 lakh). The coveted Prize, announced annually, is open to fiction written in English by authors anywhere in the world and published in the UK or Ireland.