(London) Five women are among the six finalists for the prestigious British Booker Prize 2024, which rewards works of fiction in English, and the list was revealed on Monday evening.
The six finalists, who come from the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Australia and, for the first time, the Netherlands, were selected from an initial shortlist of 13 novelists.
The chair of the 2024 jury, English writer and ceramic artist Edmund de Waal, said the list was made up of “books that made us want to keep reading, that made us want to call our friends to tell them about them, that inspired us to write, to compose music… or to go back to making pottery.”
The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on November 12, and will receive a prize of £50,000 (C$90,000), often paving the way for a successful bookstore run.
American author Rachel Kushner in competition for spy novel Creation Lakewhich follows a secret agent infiltrating a group of eco-activists, had already reached the final selection in 2018.
British writer Samantha Harvey has been selected for her novel Orbitalwhich follows six astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).
Yael van der Wouden is the first Dutch woman to reach the final round of the Booker Prize, with her debut novel The Safekeepa family drama set in his native country 15 years after the end of World War II.
The American Percival Everett (James), Canadian Anne Michaels (Held) and Australian Charlotte Wood (Stone Yard Devotional) complete this selection.
The Booker Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and has contributed to the success of writers such as Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Arundhati Roy.
Last year, the Booker Prize was awarded to Irish author Paul Lynch for his dystopian novel Prophet Song.