Edmund de Waal on this year's Booker Prize shortlist
The chair of judges details works by Rachel Kushner, Percival Everett and others
The artist, writer and chair of the 2024 Booker Prize panel describes this year's shortlist: the six best novels of the year published in English, in the judges' view. The winner will be announced on 12 November.
James
Percival Everett, 2024
Everett has described his novel as a "conversation" with the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". It is a powerful conversation. Jim, an enslaved man who discovers he is to be sold away from his family, becomes James, a potently articulate protagonist and commentator in the tumult of the Deep South.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Available on The Week Bookshop
Orbital
Samantha Harvey, 2023
Set on the International Space Station over 24 hours, this short and lyrical novel charts the lives of the six people in the cramped spacecraft as they observe the world beneath them, in all its beauty and vulnerability.
Available on The Week Bookshop
Creation Lake
Rachel Kushner, 2024
An uncategorisable novel – part spy-story, part- meditation on prehistory – that takes an American assassin to rural France to infiltrate a community of eco-activists. Funny, resonant and totally gripping, it asks searching questions about our compulsion to understand where we come from.
Available on The Week Bookshop
The Safekeep
Yael van der Wouden, 2024
Set in the Netherlands after WWII, this is a compelling story of obsession and secrets. It is quietly devastating, simultaneously a love story and a narrative of life after the Holocaust.
Available on The Week Bookshop
Held
Anne Michaels, 2023
This kaleidoscope of a novel is created from the scattered images and memories of four generations of a family. Through fragmentary passages, it asks with tenderness: "Who can say what happens when we are remembered?"
Available on The Week Bookshop
Stone Yard Devotional
Charlotte Wood, 2024
Stranded in middle-age, a woman returns to the place in which she grew up to join a small convent. This beautifully modulated book is set against the pandemic and the climate crisis. It explores the intimacy of living in intense proximity with an almost miraculous sensitivity.
Available on The Week Bookshop
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
How much of a blow is ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu?
Today's Big Question Action by Hague court damages Israel's narrative that Gaza conflict is a war between 'good and evil'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
UK gynaecological care crisis: why thousands of women are left in pain
The Explainer Waiting times have tripled over the past decade thanks to lack of prioritisation or funding for women's health
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'The Hum': the real-life noise behind The Listeners
In The Spotlight Can some of us also hear the disturbing sound that plagues characters in the hit TV show – and where is it coming from?
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Damian Barr shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The writer and broadcaster picks works by Alice Walker, Elif Shafak and others
By The Week UK Published
-
The Great Mughals: a 'treasure trove' of an exhibition
The Week Recommends The V&A's new show is 'spell-binding'
By The Week UK Published
-
Aston Martin Vanquish: 'the best Aston Martin full stop'?
The Week Recommends The third-generation Vanquish 'offers spectacular performance'
By The Week UK Published
-
7 beautiful towns to visit in Switzerland during the holidays
The Week Recommends Find bliss in these charming Swiss locales that blend the traditional with the modern
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published
-
Her Lotus Year: Paul French's new biography sets lurid rumours straight
The Week Recommends Wallis Simpson's year in China is less scandalous, but 'more interesting' than previously thought
By The Week UK Published
-
Say Nothing: 'sensational' dramatisation of Patrick Radden Keefe's bestselling book
The Week Recommends The series is a 'powerful reminder' of the Troubles
By The Week UK Published
-
Joy: fertility film starring Bill Nighy offers 'dose of seasonal cheer'
The Week Recommends The film about the invention of the fertility treatment is 'unassuming' but may 'sneak up on you'
By The Week UK Published
-
Mary Poppins tour: 'humdinger' of a show kicks off at Bristol Hippodrome
The Week Recommends Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers are 'true triple threats' as Mary and Bert in 'timeless' production
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published