Critics welcome 2024 Booker longlist and tip Percival Everett for the win

Critics have welcomed the 2024 Booker longlist as "the most enjoyable for years" with many tipping Percival Everett for the £50,000 win. 

The 13 nominations were revealed on Tuesday (30th July), dominated by Penguin Random House (with four from imprint Jonathan Cape) with two from independent publishers and a solo Irish entry (from Colin Barrett)—all posing a departure from recent years, commentators have said. 

Jake Kerridge believes this year’s showing suggests corporate publishers are still investing in challenging fiction. "In recent years the majority of longlisted books have come from independent publishers, giving commentators an annual opportunity to berate the bottom-line-focused conglomerates for leaving the run-on-a-shoestring indies to keep literary fiction alive," he wrote in the Telegraph. 

"But whereas seven of the novels on last year’s list were published by independents and eight the year before, this year it’s two. However, as it happens this is an outstanding longlist, full of rich, original work. It’s hearteningly clear that, despite reports of a decline in the number of people reading challenging fiction, the conglomerates have not yet given up on it."

Kerridge added: "This year the longlist features its first Dutch author and its first Native American author, both, happily, published by mainstream British imprints. 

"It’s a list largely free of household names, which reflects the good taste of the judges: this has been a notably poor year for memorable work by the literary big beasts."

He tipped Everett for the prize and added: "As parts of the literary ecosystem teeter on the brink of collapse, thank goodness the Booker is still thriving."

The Guardian’s Lisa Allardice also predicted Everett "leading the pack" and believes the Booker longlist "might just be the most enjoyable of recent years". She wrote: "A list of unexpected discoveries and big ideas, and perhaps one of the most enjoyable in recent years."

Johanna Thomas-Corr, was largely positive in her Times write-up, though conceded "it’s not a crowd-pleasing longlist". She added: "I have a few personal quibbles... But overall, the judges have found something for everyone: stories of war and espionage, multigenerational sagas, a psycho-sexual thriller and a reimagining of a great American classic. There’s a cosmopolitan tilt towards stories that span continents and decades, even centuries."

She added: "My hope is that after last year’s divisive winner—Paul Lynch’s pretentious dystopian novel Prophet Song—the judges will seek something with deeper and more varied pleasures," she wrote. "For the past four years, a man has won the prize, and as much as I would like to see some variety, it feels as if we may not see a female winner this year. In my mind the 2024 prize belongs to Everett or Matar’s masterly tale of endurance." 

Bea Carvalho, head of books, Waterstones, told The Bookseller: "This list is a gift for booksellers, showcasing fiction that is ambitious and challenging, yet ultimately crowd-pleasing and commercial. It is excellent to see so many long-term favourites recognised here, giving the list a classic feel with real literary heft. Percival Everett’s James has been a standout this year and we were hoping to see it here

"We are also especially happy to see Samantha Harvey’s exquisite Orbital recognised, as well as Enlightenment by previous Waterstones Book of the Year winner Sarah Perry. For the three brilliant début novels, already beloved by booksellers, this will be transformative: we are thrilled that so many more readers will discover The Safekeep, Wild Houses, and Headshot following this longlisting. We look forward to championing the whole list, and can’t wait to see how the judges grapple it into a shortlist."