The Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards globally, has announced its longlist for 2024, showcasing a diverse range of voices and narratives. While the list celebrates international authorship, a notable trend emerges with British and American writers securing a significant presence among the 13 shortlisted titles.
Percival Everett, Hisham Matar, and Sarah Perry are among the 13 authors longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. The "Booker dozen" also includes novels by Richard Powers, Tommy Orange, Rachel Kushner, and Anne Michaels. This year's "glorious" list features “a cohort of global voices, strong voices and new voices,” according to Edmund de Waal, the chair of the judging panel and artist.
Everett’s novel James, which reimagines Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved Jim, has been longlisted for the Booker Prize. The judging panel—comprising Guardian fiction editor Justine Jordan, novelists Sara Collins and Yiyun Li, musician Nitin Sawhney, and de Waal—praised Everett’s 24th book as a monumental work. They noted that James “confronts the past while holding out hope for a progressive future, cementing Everett’s deserved reputation as a literary sensation.”
Everett is among the six American authors on this year's longlist. Orange, the first Native American nominee, is recognised for his second novel, Wandering Stars, which delves into themes of addiction, displacement, trauma, and identity across generations.
The remaining U.S. nominees are Rita Bullwinkel with “Headshot” and Canadian-American Claire Messud with “This Strange Eventful History.” The longlist also features authors from the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and the Netherlands, including Anne Michaels with her novel “Held,” British-Libyan Hisham Matar with “My Friends,” and Yael van der Wouden with “The Safekeep,” marking the first Dutch contender in Booker history.
Three British novelists have made the 2024 Booker Prize longlist: Hisham Matar, Caryl Perry, and Samantha Harvey. Perry’s fourth novel, *Enlightenment*, is described by the judges as a "long and quiet book" that combines the setting of a small 1990s Essex town with a profound exploration of the cosmos, faith, and love. Samantha Harvey’s *Orbital* is longlisted for its portrayal of a single day in the lives of six astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Hisham Matar’s novel *My Friends* tells the story of three friends in political exile, focusing on the 1984 Libyan embassy shooting in London, an actual historical event.
De Waal described the longlist as featuring “timely and timeless fiction.” He added, “Here are books that unfold with quietness and stealth, as well as books that are incendiary. There are books that navigate what it means to belong, to be displaced and to return.”
The Booker Prize, which accepts works published between October 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024, was initially restricted to Commonwealth writers when it began in 1969. Since 2014, however, authors of any nationality can be considered. To be eligible, books must be originally written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.
The shortlist for the £50,000 award will be announced on September 16, and the winner will be revealed on November 12. Recent winners include Douglas Stuart, Shehan Karunatilaka, Damon Galgut, and the 2019 joint winners Bernardine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood. Last year's prize was awarded to Paul Lynch for his novel Prophet Song.
