2024 Booker Prize: Longlist

A Bumper Crop of Historical Fiction

Photo by Robert Anasch on Unsplash

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I like to scan the big prizes to see how well historical fiction is represented in the ethos. This year, of the thirteen novels on the Longlist, a whopping FIVE are historical! This makes me happy, happy!

The Booker Prize is “awarded to what is, in the opinion of the judges, the best sustained work of fiction written in English and published in the UK and Ireland.”

Here are the historical fiction titles on the Longlist:

Held, by Anne Michaels: 1917, WWI, France and North Yorkshire, covers four decades in the life of a wounded soldier.

Wandering Stars, by Tommy Orange: Begins 1865 at the Sand Creek Massacre (Colorado) and continues into the 21^st century.

This Strange Eventful History, by Claire Messud: Begins in 1940 Paris and moves on to North Africa, the Americas, and Australia.

James, by Percival Everett: 1861, Mississippi River – this is a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of Jim, the runaway slave.

The Safekeep, by Yael van der Wouden: Mid-twentieth Century Dutch.

The shortlist will be announced on September 16^th; the winner on November 12^th.

I’ve linked to the Booker Prize pages for each. Let us know if any of these interest you. If you’ve read any from the list, tell us what you think!

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