Another Bookish Year with the Booker Prize

Many readers won’t be surprised that Orbital by Samantha Harvey has won this year’s Booker Prize. The story follows six astronauts on the International Space Station as they circle Earth and watch in amazement as their planet experiences sunrises, sunsets and astonishing weather events. With beautiful, crafted prose, the book pipped popular favourite, James by Percival Everett, a novel based on Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and which was considered by many a stand-out read and modern classic.

Others on the shortlist include Anne Michaels' Held, a haunting historical novel about a veteran of WWI; Rachel Kushner's Creation Lake, a black comedy about a female spy; The Safekeep, by Yael van der Wouden, a post-war drama set in 1960s Holland; and Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional, a contemplation on grief and forgiveness.

Some book groups and many individual readers make a point of reading the Booker Prize shortlist each year, and even the longlist as well. The countdown to the awards presentation and all the buzz of trying to pick the winner is always exciting if you’ve read the candidates.

One of our library staff belongs to just such a book group and had this to say about this year's competition:

All the ‘Bookers’ were good reads – accessible, interesting, easy.

Of the shortlist, the ones I enjoyed and found most immersive were James, The Safekeep and Orbital. James was probably the most compelling read; The Safekeep was an insight into the lasting and terrible consequences of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands; Orbital a fascinating look into life on a space mission. I thought Orbital a worthy winner because of the sheer beauty of the writing.

I thought the concept of Creation Lake was really powerful, but I didn’t engage with any of the characters and I felt it was wordier than it needed to be.

Held again had an appealing concept but ultimately, I was left feeling disappointed (a feeling shared by others, some who also found the chronological order confusing). Stone Yard Devotional was interesting but to me it didn’t stand out.

Of the Longlist I most enjoyed This Strange Eventful History (by Claire Messud) and Playground (by Richard Powers). I think we should all be reading Playground!

Still not sure which to read first? Have a look at The Booker Prizes website which has amazing ideas for expanding your reading. There are videos of well-known actors giving readings from the shortlist that I can’t recommend enough. And if you love quizzes, there’s one that will suggest the best book from the longlist to begin with according to your reading preferences.  You can find reading guides for many Booker titles, as well as scroll back through the years of Booker history to discover more books to add to the must-read list. Happy browsing.

26 November 2024

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