Discover what’s on the Booker Prize shortlist!

The Booker Prize shortlist has just been announced, and what an exciting list it is! Each year, the prize is awarded to the best work of fiction written in English and published in the UK and Ireland, and this year’s winner will be revealed on Tuesday 12th November.

In the meantime, there’s plenty of scope to explore the six shortlisted novels, which transport readers around the world and beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The settings range from the battlefields of WW1 to a spiritual retreat in rural Australia; from America’s Deep South in the 19th century to a remote Dutch house in the 1960s; and from the International Space Station to a cave network beneath the French countryside. In terms of themes, the shortlisted books explore the importance of home and family; the contested nature of truth and history; and the extent to which we reveal our true nature to others.

This year sees the largest number of women shortlisted in the prize’s fifty-five-year history, with five women and one man represented. Authors from five countries appear on this year’s list, including the first Dutch writer to be shortlisted, the first Australian in ten years, with British, Canadian and American authors completing the list.

The Booker Prize shortlist is:

· James by Percival Everett

· Orbital by Samantha Harvey

· Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

· Held by Anne Michaels

· The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

· Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

Helen has read and highly recommends James, a brilliant reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which explores themes of identity and belonging in a thrilling, often very amusing, way.

Jacqui adores Orbital, a stunning novella about the fragility of life, the beauty and vulnerability of our planet and the power of human connection in a rapidly evolving world. Samantha Harvey’s writing is gorgeous, and we’re looking forward to exploring the other titles, too!

You can buy the shortlisted books from our shops or order them online from our storefront on Bookshop.Org here (there’s FREE DELIVERY on ALL orders over £25 from our Bookshop.Org shop, so keep this in mind if you’re ordering online!).