Three British authors nominated for the Booker Prize…

Three British authors nominated for the Booker Prize longlist

The longlist for the prestigious Booker Prize has been released, and three British writers are in the running for the top prize.

The award, which has been going since 1969, counts Percival Everett, Hisham Matar and Sarah Perry among its thirteen nominees. Perry’s fourth novel, Enlightenment, has been billed as a “long and quiet book” that juxtaposes a small town in 1990s Essex with an exploration of life and the heavens.

Meanwhile the British-Libyan author Matar’s My Friends is centred on three friends living in political exile. “This powerful story of exile charts the aftermath of this moment as the friends navigate a world where they cannot rest, where both the idea and the reality of homeland is contingent and dangerous,” said the judges.

And Harvey’s novel, Orbital, explores a day in the life of six astronauts on the International Space Station, as they battle mission fatigue.

The award features three debut novelists, alongside established, internationally bestselling authors and six previously nominated writers. The longlist also features the first Dutch and Native American authors to be longlisted.

“One of the true markers of the novels that we have chosen is that we feel they are necessary books, fiction that has made a space in our hearts and that we want to see find a place in the reading lives of many others,” said Edmund de Waal, the chair of the 2024 judging panel.

“To reach the end of a novel and to be deeply moved and be unable to work out quite how that has happened is a great gift. This is timely and timeless fiction, in which there is much at stake.”

The shortlist of six books will be announced on September 16, before the 2024 winner is announced on November 12. The winner of the prize will receive £50,000 and a trophy.