The winner of the U.K.’s most prestigious literary prize, the Booker, will be announced on 12 November. The six authors on shortlist in the running for the prize are from the U.K., Australia, Canada, the U.S.A. and, for the first time, the Netherlands. Also for the first time, five out of six are women. Get a taste of the shortlisted books with these short films created for the competition.
The books in alphabetical order of author name:
James, Percival Everett
This is veteran author Everett's second short-listed book in as many years. And American Fiction, adapted from his novel Erasure, became an Oscar-winning film in the last year. James is a rewriting of Mark Twain's classic Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of Jim, the adult enslaved person who accompanies Huck on his raft ride when he runs away.
Those white boys, Huck and Tom, watched me. They were always playing some kind of pretending game where I was either a villain or prey, but certainly their toy. They hopped about out there with the chiggers, mosquitoes and other biting bugs, but never made any progress toward me. It always pays to give white folks what they want, so I stepped into the yard and called out into the night,
“Who dat dere in da dark lak dat?”
In this short film, actor Nonso Anonzie reads an extract about teaching black children to appear less articulate and intelligent than they actually are when in contact with white people. This extract would work well in a sequence about slavery or segregation.
Orbital, Samantha Harvey
Samantha Harvey is British and teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University. She was longlisted for the Booker in 2009 for The Wilderness. In Orbital she says she hoped to write "a sort space pastoral." It is set on the International Space Station, where six astronauts of various nationalities observe and reflect on Earth and its inhabitants.
Orbit minus 1
Rotating about the earth in their spacecraft they are so together, and so alone, that even their thoughts, their internal mythologies, at times convene. Sometimes they dream the same dreams – of fractals and blue spheres and familiar faces engulfed in dark, and of the bright energetic black of space that slams their senses. Raw space is a panther, feral and primal; they dream it stalking through their quarters.
Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner
This is also a second Booker nomination for American author Rachel Kushner. The Mars Room was longlisted in 2018. The protagonist in Creation Lake is Sadie Smith, an American undercover agent investigating a commune of eco-activists in rural France. The commune is led by a modern-day guru, Bruno Lacombe, who lives in a Neanderthal cave and longs to return to a primitive past.
I was aware that Bruno Lacombe was against civilization, an “anti- civver,” in activist slang. And that the rural, southwestern department Guyenne—and this remote corner of it to which I’d just arrived—was known for caves that held evidence of early humans. But I had assumed Bruno would be guiding Pascal’s strategies for stopping the state’s industrial projects here. It had not occurred to me that this mentor of Pascal’s would have a fanatical belief in a failed species.
Read an extract of Creation Lake.
In this short film, actor Adelayo Adedayo reads an extract narrated by Sadie Smith about the court case that follows her investigation.
Held, Anne Michaels
Held is a historical novel spanning the 20th century. It begins with an injured soldier, John, on a WWI battlefield in France and goes on to follow him and his love story with Helena. Anne Michaels is an award-winning novelist and poet from Canada. Her poetic style is evident from the first pages of the book.
It was possible that the blast had taken his hearing. There were no trees to identify the wind, no wind, he thought, at all. Was it raining? John could see the air glistening, but he couldn’t feel it on his face.
*
The mist erased all it touched.
*
Through the curtain of his breath he saw a flash, a shout of light.
In this short film, actor Jason Isaacs reads an extract set in 1920, when John has returned injured from war and opened a photography studio. As he develops a portrait, a mysterious image appears.
The Safekeep, Yael Van Der Wouden
Yael Van Der Wouden is the first Dutch novelist to be nominated for the Booker. The Safe Keep is set in the aftermath of World War Two, in a rural region of the Netherlands. Isabel is living a quiet, disciplined life alone in the family home but tensions with her brothers are exacerbated by the arrival of her brother Louis sends his new girlfriend, Eva, to stay.
It had once been a plate, which was part of a set—her mother’s favorite: the good chinaware, for holidays, for guests. When Mother was alive the set was kept in a glass vitrine in the dining room and no one was allowed to handle it. It had been years since her passing and the plates were still kept behind the closed doors, unused. On the rare occasion when Isabel’s brothers visited, Isabel would set the table using everyday plates and Hendrik would try to pry open the vitrine and say, “Isa, Isa, come now, what’s the point of having good things if you can’t touch them?” And Isabel would answer: “They are not for touching. They are for keeping.”
Read an extract of The Safekeep.
This reading by Tanya Reynolds portrays the tense meeting between Isabel and Eve.
Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood
Australian novelist Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional tells the story of a middle-aged woman who retreats from Sydney to the small rural town where she grew up. She takes refuge in a small convent, but her search for peace destined to be disturbed and she finds she can't truly escape her past.
On the way here I stopped in the town and visited my parents’ graves for the first time in thirty-five years. It took some time for me to find them in what is called the ‘lawn cemetery’, the newer part fenced off – why? – from the original town grave- yard with its crooked rows of tilting white headstones and crosses. That old part is overlooked by enormous black pine trees; ravens and cockatoos scream from their high branches. The lawn cemetery, by contrast, is a dull, flat expanse filled with gently curved rows of low, ugly headstones of identical dimensions. Neater, I suppose (but why should a cemetery be neat?)
Read an extract of Stone Yard Devotional.
This reading by Chipo Chung is a monologue by the protagonist, reflecting on her choice to withdraw from the world and the effect it had on those she left behind.
The 2024 Booker winner will be announced on 12 November. If you want more information about the books and authors, as well as the longlisted works, check out the Booker Prize site.
Copyright(s) :
The Booker Prize
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