Booker Prize winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart are contenders once more for the prestigious fiction award. They are joined by works featuring Dublin gangs, dystopian science fiction, and New England characters crafted by Pulitzer Prize laureate Elizabeth Strout.
Judges evaluated 163 novels to select 13 semifinalists for the 50,000 pound ($66,000) Booker Prize. Historian Mary Beard, who heads the judging panel, characterized the list as literary “dynamite.”
The list includes James’ “The Disappearers,” a narrative about gay men in hostile 1980s Jamaica. Stuart’s “John of John” explores father-son secrets on a remote Scottish island. Strout’s “The Things We Never Say” presents a heartfelt small-town story.
James earned the Booker Prize in 2015 with “A Brief History of Seven Killings.” Stuart won in 2020 for “Shuggie Bain.” Strout’s “Oh William!” was a finalist in 2022. Her “Olive Kitteridge” won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009.
Alongside these renowned names on the Booker longlist are authors with roots in Britain, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Turkey, and the United States. Three debut authors feature: Kenan Orhan, Rebecca Perry, and Djamel White.
Turkish-American writer Kenan Orhan presents a family history tale, “The Renovation.” British author Rebecca Perry offers a Medieval-to-modern piece, “May We Feed the King.” Irish writer Djamel White, the youngest at 28, delivers “All Them Dogs,” a thriller in Dublin’s underworld.
The oldest contender is M. John Harrison, 81, with “The End of Everything,” a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel. Other semifinalists include “The Shadow of the Object” by Chloe Aridjis, “Black Bag” by Luke Kennard, “The Vivisectors” by Missouri Williams, “Switzy” by Emma Cline, “Helen of Nowhere” by Makenna Goodman, and Gwendoline Riley’s “The Palm House.”
Beard highlighted that the five jurors, including Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and novelist Patricia Lockwood, sought to move beyond typical Booker winner criteria – “slightly serious, about to be classic.” Instead, their selections aim to expand boundaries and encourage different perspectives.
“Sometimes they’re using humor, sometimes it’s pathos, sometimes there’s shock value,” Beard stated. “They’re risk-takers. They are dynamite. They say ‘Come on, try seeing it a different way.’”
Established in 1969, the Booker Prize has a legacy of transforming writers’ careers. It welcomes novels from any country published in the U.K. and Ireland. The previous year’s winner was “Flesh” by David Szalay, a Hungarian-British writer.
Judges will announce the six finalists on Sept. 22. The ultimate winner will be revealed on Nov. 9 at a ceremony in London.