Booker Prize shortlist revealed after judges' 'tussle'
Judges for the Booker Prize have announced a six-novel shortlist, including past winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart, following a selection process
Past Booker Prize winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart are shortlisted again for the £50,000 literary award. The six finalists were selected after what judging panel chair Dame Mary Beard called hard work, with seven longlisted books from July being cut.
Jamaican writer Marlon James is nominated for The Disappearers, while Scottish author Douglas Stuart is shortlisted for John of John. The other contenders are US novelist Elizabeth Strout and British authors M John Harrison, Luke Kennard, and Rebecca Perry. The winner will be announced in London on 9 November during a live BBC Radio 4 Front Row broadcast.
Dame Mary Beard said agreeing on the final six had been difficult. She praised the state of English-language fiction, stating it is full of talent, wit, seriousness, and real brilliance. She added that novelists should be rewarded more than they currently are.
The judges' selection process
Poet and judge Raymond Antrobus told reporters the selection was a tussle, as each judge initially had a different idea for the shortlist. Fellow judge, novelist Patricia Lockwood, joked they wrestled like pigs in the mud. She said she discovered she was bossier than she believed while advocating for books, even tossing them across the room during meetings.
Antrobus said the chosen books are connected by their risk-taking and heart. He argued these are very human books that navigate lived experience and cannot be replicated by artificial intelligence.
Judge Jarvis Cocker, the Pulp frontman, compared the panel's dynamic to being in a band, where combining creates something no individual could control alone. He read entries while on tour and joined one judges' meeting online at 2 a.m. local time from an Australian hotel room while wearing a dressing gown.
The 2024 Booker Prize shortlist
The following table details the six shortlisted novels and their authors.
| Novel | Author | Notable Details |
|---|---|---|
| The End of Everything | M John Harrison | Author's first Booker nomination; would be oldest winner at 81. Judges described it as a thriller, mystery, satire, dystopia, road novel, and work of realism. |
| The Disappearers | Marlon James | Epic story about a 1988 attack on gay men in Jamaica. The New York Times called it a masterpiece. James won the Booker in 2015. |
| Black Bag | Luke Kennard | Campus novel about an actor locked in a bag for a term. Judges called it a quirky, moving story about human frailty and identity. |
| May We Feed the King | Rebecca Perry | Debut novel by a poet about a curator recreating a historical scene. Judges called it an affecting jewel that unsettles historical truth. |
| The Things We Never Say | Elizabeth Strout | Story of a history teacher facing a secret in modern America. Strout is a former Pulitzer winner and double Booker nominee. |
| John of John | Douglas Stuart | Novel about a fashion student returning to a remote Scottish island. Stuart won the Booker in 2020. |
Omissions and a culinary wager
Notable longlisted books that failed to make the shortlist included Emma Cline's Switzy. Critic Giles Coren had written in the Times that the novel was a nailed-on Booker winner, vowing to eat Mary Beard if it did not make the shortlist.
Responding to the wager, Dame Mary Beard said she would get the cooker prepared and ask Coren how he wanted her done. The BBC source reports the exchange but does not indicate any further action on the bet.
The judges' comments for each shortlisted book emphasized their unique qualities, from Harrison's bleak but funny landscape to Kennard's absurd experiment and Perry's lush historical movement. The panel hopes the shortlist makes a nice noise, as Jarvis Cocker put it.
