While the judges emphasized that each book was selected on merit, judge Sara Collins remarked on the historical gender imbalance in literary recognition, noting that “literary accolades are often still reserved for men." This year, however, a surge of women authors reflects changing tides.

Among the selected authors, Percival Everett, the sole male, stands out as a favorite with his novel James, a subversive retelling of Mark Twain’s classic. Everett’s The Trees earned him a Booker nomination in 2022, and his earlier work Erasure was adapted into the Oscar-nominated film American Fiction. Rachel Kushner, another returning nominee, was shortlisted in 2018 for The Mars Room. Her current novel, Creation Lake, combines philosophical depth with the thrilling intrigue of a spy story.

The shortlist also includes British author Samantha Harvey, whose Orbital meditates on the human condition from the vantage point of astronauts in orbit, and Canadian poet Anne Michaels, whose novel Held weaves together the fragmented memories of four generations. Australian Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional explores existential themes within a cloistered religious setting, while Dutch debut novelist Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep presents a queer love story intertwined with the Holocaust.

The 2024 judging panel, chaired by Edmund de Waal, consists of author Sara Collins, fiction editor Justine Jordan, writer Yiyun Li, and composer Nitin Sawhney. De Waal praised the urgent relevance of the shortlisted novels, emphasizing their ability to “confront the world in all its instability and complexity."

The winner of the prestigious £50,000 prize will be announced at a ceremony in London on November 12, 2024.