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In the world of the Booker Prizes this week: Celebrating Han Kang; the 2024 shortlistees on books that changed their worldview; the best classic retellings; and stories about the pull of home

International Booker Prize-winner Han Kang wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Han Kang © Chunny Lee

Just over a week ago, Han Kang was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature ‘for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life’. For readers familiar with her work, the win feels like a natural progression in an already celebrated career. Eight years ago in 2016, Han won the International Booker Prize for The Vegetarian, a haunting yet beautiful exploration of shame, desire, and our faltering attempts to understand the lives of others. Notably, Han is the third International Booker Prize nominee to win the Nobel in the past three years – highlighting the growing influence of translated fiction, and our prize, on the global stage.

Translated from Korean by Deborah Smith, The Vegetarian continues to captivate new readers, and Han’s Nobel win is certain to attract even more fans; it has been reported that, collectively, her work sold over 1 million copies in the week following the Nobel announcement.

If you're new to the novel and want to learn more, you can explore an extract, read an interview with the author, and dive into our comprehensive reading guide, complete with discussion points for book clubs.

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The 2024 shortlistees on the book that challenged their worldview

Sometimes a book comes along that gives you a metaphorical slap in the face. A book so powerful, it pushes you outside your comfort zone and alters the way you see the world forever.  For some, it’s a text that ignites a political or spiritual awakening; for others, it’s a book that provides a fresh take on history and which reshapes their understanding of the past. Here, the Booker Prize 2024 shortlistees share the books that have left an impact on them, long after the final page.   

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11 Booker-nominated books that reimagine classic works

Adventures of Huckberry Finn- 1974 UA film © Alamy

Recently, an explosion of literature revisiting well-known tales has offered new perspectives to readers. But why the surge? The literary canon hasn’t always been kind to marginalised voices and in response, feminist writers and authors of colour have taken up the mantle, questioning whose stories get to be told. Now, with Percival Everett’s retelling of a 19th-century classic appearing on this year’s shortlist, we’ve scoured the Booker archives for more titles inspired by myths, folklore, bible stories and other literary works.

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Why this year’s shortlist is all about the emotional pull of home

Whether they are floating in space, on the run from slave owners in 19^th-century Mississippi or battling a plague of mice in rural Australia, many of the characters in the novels on this year’s Booker Prize shortlist are preoccupied with the idea of ‘home’. They are longing for it, exiled from it, clinging to it, reflecting on it or trying to create a new version of it. Here, Max Liu explores the ways in which the Booker Prize 2024 shortlist tells essential, new stories that explore the changing nature of the human struggle to belong. 

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What’s on your TBR pile this week? Have you made your way through the Booker Prize shortlist yet? Let us know in the comments below!