Update:
Orbital by British author Samantha Harvey has won this year’s Booker Prize. Judging chair Edmund de Waal says the novel about astronauts on the International Space Station was chosen unanimously. The winner of the high-profile Booker Prize was announced at a ceremony in London.
Listener reviewers have read each of the six titles on the shortlist, which includes the first Dutch writer to be shortlisted, the first Australian in 10 years and British, Canadian and US authors. Of the finalists, five are women representing the largest number of women to be shortlisted in the award’s 55-year history.
Here’s what our reviewers had to say about each one:
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
Reviewed by Anna Rogers:
“This winner of the Stella Prize (an Australian literature award for women) understands the power of restraint and simplicity. And she is unafraid of taking on the big questions: What is faith? Is true forgiveness possible? How can grief be accommodated? There are no easy answers. Is Charlotte Wood, as a UK reviewer suggests, worthy of being ranked alongside Elizabeth Strout or Penelope Lively? No question. Stone Yard Devotional is an extraordinary novel.”
You can read the full review here
James by Percival Everett (Pan Macmillan, $37.99)
Reviewed by Cheryl Pearl Sucher
“James recreates The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of Jim, Huck’s slave accomplice, whom he now refers to as James, transforming him to the rational, contemplative protagonist of his narrative… James is a great work born out of the bones of a masterpiece. In excavating the past, Everett has written a novel which boldly comments on the nation’s haunted history that continues to fuel its current implacable division.”
To read the full review, go here
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Viking, $38)
Review by Cheryl Pearl Sucher
“Yael ven der Wouden’s debut novel is a wonder. It begins as a novel of manners and evolves into an erotic suspense thriller with keen historical implications… Van der Wouden’s writing is taut, without a single gratuitous phrase or description. The writing reminds of the postwar writing of Graham Greene and Anita Brookner – but then it becomes a thriller and something more. In the end, The Safekeep was as astonishing as it was unexpected. A great discovery, and a great candidate for this year’s Booker Prize.
Held by Anne Michaels (Bloomsbury, $33)
Reviewed by Jeremy Rees
“Held is a complex novel. Its structure is fragmented, like particles of a story, revolving again and again around love, solace, memory and the persistence of love, perhaps even beyond death. If the novel was rearranged and plotted in a linear fashion it would be a family tree through four generations.”
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Vintage, $26)
Reviewed by Mark Broatch
“Were it only for the author’s research and supreme act of imagination, Orbital would be a worthy Booker finalist. But it is also a work of sustained luminous prose, not least the splendidly elegant variation in sunrises and continents slipping beneath them. “The vast spill of day” … “just as the ocean runs out” … “pile the island up like a sandcastle hastily built”. Though never less than captivating, its novella-length brevity also ensures it doesn’t outstay its welcome. A perfectly formed work of fiction.
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Jonathan Cape, $38)
Reviewed by Cheryl Pearl Sucher
“Rachel Kushner is a mighty writer of fierce intelligence but whose novels I generally find less compelling and engaging than they are instructive and aspirational. Reading Creation Lake, Kushner’s fourth work of fiction, which is shortlisted for the Booker Prize, was an exasperating and exhausting experience.”
You can read the full review here.
