Booker Prize 2024 Longlist

Set entirely aboard the International Space Station over 24 hours, Orbital is a meditative ‘space pastoral’ about humanity and fragility. Harvey’s crystalline prose captures six astronauts’ reflections on Earth, existence, and climate change. The tight timeframe intensifies emotional resonance, while the orbital structure mirrors the passage of time and memory. It’s compact yet expansive, philosophical yet grounded in human intimacy—so much so that judges described it as a ‘book about a wounded world’. Winning the 2024 Booker Prize, Orbital proves that a short novel can have cosmic impact.

Percival Everett reshapes the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by centering Jim—here named James—as a literate, philosophically engaged man who dreams of enlightenment philosophers. The novel reclaims agency and intellect for a historically marginalized character. Everett’s prose is incisive, sharp, and laced with dark humour as James navigates oppressive social terrain. The narrative is at once a critique of racial injustice and a celebration of Black resilience and wisdom. Through dream sequences and historical allusions, Everett crafts a metafictional tapestry that is both bold and deeply humane. His reinterpretation earned him a place on the shortlist and numerous other accolades, including the Pulitzer Prize.

A gripping debut set in post‑WWII Amsterdam, The Safekeep follows Isabel as she uncovers forbidden desires and intergenerational trauma. Van der Wouden interweaves historical reckoning with a layered psychological thriller. The novel excels at atmospheric tension and emotional complexity, peeling back national histories and personal secrets. Critics praised its emotional heft and subtle craftsmanship. This elegiac story deftly negotiates love, obsession and survival, marking an impressive first appearance on the longlist.

Drawing on the author's Libyan exile, My Friends offers a poignant account of three companions navigating grief and displacement. Matar’s sparse, precise prose evokes both intimacy and loss, centering on a real 1984 protest shooting outside the Libyan embassy in London. More than memoir, it’s a collective portrait of solidarity under political duress. The novel probes themes of memory, friendship, and the cost of standing together. Critics noted its quiet emotional power and resonant restraint. This is a deeply humane exploration of exile and historical wounding.

Spanning a century, Held weaves moments of war, science and love into fragments of human connection. Michaels employs evocative imagery over strict chronology, allowing emotional truths to surface in flashes and silences. The novel moves between characters and eras, binding them through shared experiences of trauma and transcendence. Judges felt transported by its lyrical craft and thematic depth. It’s a meditation on what—and whom—we hold onto across time. An elegiac, atmospheric work that lingers in the mind long after reading.

Set in rural Australia, Stone Yard Devotional examines grief, forgiveness and female friendship with unflinching clarity. Wood portrays two women confronting a shared past, their silences loaded with unspoken regrets. The prose is muscular yet tender, rooted in place and memory. Judges spotlighted its fearless emotional honesty, and it was shortlisted for several Australian awards. Wood explores how bonds can both heal and wound, urging readers to reckon with the past. The result is a raw, resonant tale of reconciliation.

Headshot thrusts us into the ring with eight teenage female boxers over the course of a two‑day championship. Bullwinkel channels the fierce physicality of boxing with psychological depth, exploring ambition, body image and competition. The short‑story structure builds momentum, alternating between action and internal monologue. It’s visceral, athletic, and emotionally charged. Critics lauded its energy and insight into youth, gender and identity. A debut that punches above its weight, Headshot delivers both thrills and nuance.

Messud’s novel unfolds as a multi‑layered exploration of family legacies, power and intimacy across generations. Her prose, precise and observant, captures emotional complexity with analytic clarity. Themes of inheritance—be it wealth, trauma or desire—resonate throughout. The pacing is deliberate, allowing subtle shifts to reveal deep patterns. Readers experience characters’ inner worlds and the forces that shape them. This is a quietly ambitious work that quietly unfolds, rewarding attentive readers with its depth and resonance.

From the author of There There, Orange delivers a sweeping multigenerational saga of Native American life. Wandering Stars threads stories of addiction, displacement, resilience and cultural survival. His nonlinear structure and multiple perspectives create a mosaic of identity and memory. The prose is lyrical and grounded, moving between pain and joy with nuance. Orange explores what it means to belong, to lose, and to carry forward ancestral legacies. It's a powerful, expansive narrative that stakes claim to silenced histories.

Colin Barrett’s debut novel is a propulsive, darkly comic tale of kidnapping, desperation, and dysfunctional loyalty in rural Ireland. Set over a tense weekend, the story centers on Dev, a reclusive loner reluctantly hosting Doll, a teenager abducted by the Ferdia brothers over a drug debt. Barrett weaves atmospheric small‑town life with sharp dialogue and vivid storytelling—his prose alternately hilarious, melancholic, and precise. He balances violence with absurdity—moments of menace interrupted by Zen gardens and quirky dogs. Through alternating perspectives, readers experience Nicky’s fierce loyalty and Dev’s quiet grief, both outsiders caught in familial and communal forces. Critics lauded the plotting, pacing, character dynamics and narrative control, noting the novel’s skillful blend of grit and grace.

Part spy thriller, part meditation on history and ideology, Creation Lake follows an American woman infiltrating a radical commune in remote France. Kushner’s prose is sharp, atmospheric, and politically perceptive. She interrogates the legacy of activism, idealism, and disillusionment. The novel blurs the lines between memory, surveillance, and loyalty. It's a quietly powerful read that explores how our past shapes our present choices. Judges praised its ambition and emotional intelligence on the shortlist.

A contemplative tale set in 1990s Essex, Enlightenment follows two unlikely friends uncovering the legacy of a vanished 19th‑century explorer. Perry balances intimate friendship with philosophical musings on faith, comets and the supernatural. Her writing is quiet, reflective and suffused with a sense of wonder. The novel explores belonging—both terrestrial and cosmic—through subtle shifts in tone and perspective. Judges called it a long, quiet book that brings together heaven and earth in an exhilarating blend. It's a deeply thoughtful meditation on history, belief and connection.

Set partly on the island of Makatea, Playground examines environmental crisis, floating cities and human ambition. Powers weaves technological speculation with richly drawn characters facing moral and ecological dilemmas. His prose is expansive, layered, and intellectually rigorous. The novel explores how we imagine solutions to planetary collapse—and what we lose in the process. It’s both panoramic and intimate, full of lyrical descriptions and ethical urgency. A powerful testament to Powers’s imagination and concern for the fate of the Earth.