Booker prize 2024: the six shortlisted books reviewed by our experts

Arts & Culture, Books

From a longlist of 13, six novels have been shortlisted for the 2024 Booker prize. Our academics review the finalists ahead of the announcement of the winner on November 12.

The Safe Keep by Yael van der Wouden

Penguin

The Safe Keep, a novel about the expropriation and theft of Jewish property during the second world war, revisits a dark chapter of Dutch history.

Before being deported, Dutch Jews were stripped of their homes and belongings, and forced to flee Amsterdam with what little they could carry. Van der Wouden’s debut novel shines an ironic light on the act of keeping or maintaining things that were to be reclaimed by their rightful owners, but which were lost or stolen in the war.

The trauma of this history hangs over the lives of three siblings grieving the loss of their mother.

Isabel, the novel’s lonely protagonist, lives alone in the family house, keeping it in order as her late mother would have wanted. All the while she suspects that their maid is stealing from the kitchen. But following the arrival of her brother’s girlfriend, Eva, Isabel discovers the truth of the house and attempts to right historical wrongs.

By Manjeet Ridon, Associate Dean International, Arts, Design and Humanities

James by Percival Everett

Mantle

James is an incredible re-writing of Mark Twain’s 1884 American classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Everett has reclaimed Twain’s “Jim” from the peripheries, boldly placing him centre stage.

Just like the original book, it’s set in the pre-civil war plantation south. It’s 1861, war is brewing, and James hears that he may be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his family. He goes on the run with the resourceful young white boy, Huck Finn.

This is a literary, writerly and scholarly novel. Everett expertly weaves black literary criticism and theory into his narrative, while also making artful allusions to the books that shaped American scholarly and literary traditions. This weaving, however, is done with a light and engaging touch.

James’s story will change you. You will start to question all the other classic novels you’ve read and wonder whose story is being suppressed. What if, you’ll ask yourself, they could be fleshed out and heard properly? It would, perhaps, be a much richer tale to tell.

By Emily Zobel Marshall, Professor in Postcolonial Literature

Read more:
James by Percival Everett: an enthralling reimagining of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of formerly enslaved Jim

Held by Anne Michaels

Bloomsbury

In Held, war seeps into the very bones of the text. Always looming, like a traumatic dark cloud, this is a novel about the adjustment and readjustment to life after conflict, its all-consuming nature and the indelible marks it leaves behind. Yet there is a sensual homeliness about the novel that offers warm, safe spaces among the shadows of the past.

Nostalgia, captured in snapshots or literal photographs in many instances, creates, confers and confirms memories. History is the ghost that haunts the characters’ present, whether through conflict, grief or remembrance.

This is a beautifully sensory novel about humanity, existence, and memory over the “long exposure of time”. The distance between people manifests across eras and places, but the novel also grasps at the closeness of human relationships. The characters are not still, they represent a peace that holds us in a quiet nostalgic reverence for the past. They are each held not only by individual bonds and relations, but by the silent claim that history’s spectre makes on us all.

By Sarah Trott, Senior Lecturer in American Studies and History

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Penguin/Vintage

Samantha Harvey’s Orbital skilfully exposes the human cost of space flight, set against the urgency of the climate crisis. While a typhoon of life-threatening proportions gathers across south-east Asia, six cosmonauts hurtle around Earth on the International Space Station.

Their everyday routine of tasteless food and laboratory work is in stark contrast to the awesome spectacle of the blue planet, oscillating between night and day, dark and light, where international borders are meaningless.

While they teach laboratory mice to orient themselves in micro-gravity, they rigorously document their own bodily functions to satisfy some “grand abstract dream of interplanetary life” away from “the planet held hostage by humans, a gun to its vitals”. These are humans, Harvey tells us, “with a godly view that’s the blessing and also the curse”. Harvey has written a novel for the end of the world as we know it. The hope it offers is that we might learn to know it differently.

By Debra Benita Shaw, Reader in Cultural Theory

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

Hachette

This is a quietly extraordinary novel. The narrative is stripped to bedrock and yet, paradoxically, is as complex and fertile as the compost that forms one of its primary metaphors.

The narrator, unnamed and middle-aged, leaves Sydney, Australia, and her job at a threatened species centre. She leaves her home, her husband and friends, to go to a small religious community retreat in the outback where she grew up. Three visitations disturb the nuns: a plague of mice, the return of the bones of a murdered sister and the reappearance of a former schoolmate.

Here the narrator confronts her memories of grief, loss and guilt and addresses the question of how to live in the world. How can we recognise our responsibilities to each other and to the natural world of which humans are inescapably a part? What really matters?

Praying, one of the nuns tells the narrator, is “admitting yourself to otherness … it’s hard labour”. With its attention to the work of contemplation, Wood’s novel itself takes on the devotional quality of prayer.

By Diana Wallace, Professor of English Literature

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

Jonathan Cape

Sadie Smith is an American spy tasked with infiltrating Le Moulin, a utopian commune in southwest France accused of perpetrating violent acts in its quest to protect the environment. A nuanced, often hilarious novel about community, the tale is narrated by a character who is a self-serving individualist.

Sadie may be ready to lie and deceive for the right amount of money. Yet she’s also able to listen and even question her own beliefs as she religiously reads the emails sent to Le Moulin by its eccentric mentor, Bruno Lacombe, who lives in a cave and praises the lifestyle of the Neanderthal.

But Le Moulin’s apparent utopia is deeply flawed. The leader, Pascal, is an upper-class Parisian more interested in becoming a guru than challenging the rampant sexism, classism and ageism in his commune. Kushner offers us a sharp look at the European identity from the point of view of an outsider, and doesn’t shy away from the uncomfortable.

By Inés Gregori Labarta, Lecturer in Creative Writing

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Author Arianne De Rond Releases Transformative Book ‘Be the Change for Your Dog: Life Lessons from Dogs to Inspire Rather than Control’

Arts & Culture, Books

SARNIA, Ontario, Canada, Nov. 6, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Personal coach, animal communicator, and dog trainer Arianne De Rond announces the release of her new book, “Be the Change for Your Dog: Life Lessons from Dogs to Inspire Rather than Control” (ISBN: 978-0228855408; Tellwell). This thought-provoking guide offers readers a journey of self-discovery and personal growth, led by the wisdom of their closest companions—their dogs.

The Great Banking Bake Off: insights from Money20/20 USA on how to make the perfect generative AI ‘cake’

Technology

Alice Chambers |

06 November 2024

The role of generative artificial intelligence in financial services is evolving and understanding its full potential is as intricate a baking a complex recipe, according Efi Pylarinou, founder of financial services content provider GrowFin.

Pylarinou hosted a panel at Money20/20 USA including thought leaders Uljan Sharka, CEO of iGenius; Christine Cavallo, senior vice president and head of strategy at Citizens; and Tyler Pichach, head of banking strategy for worldwide financial services at Microsoft, to discuss how technology providers are helping banks to ‘bake’ generative AI into their operations. Through the metaphor of baking, the session explored the nuances of crafting impactful AI-driven solutions for financial services by comparing the journey of AI adoption to creating the perfect cake the right ingredients, kitchen appliances and the best bakers.

Layering AI into banking

Pylarinou set the stage by comparing generative AI in banking to molecular gastronomy in cooking.

“In baking, we are moving toward combinations we’ve never seen before,” she said, likening generative AI to a crucial ingredient like baking powder. Just as baking powder drives chemical reactions in cooking, generative AI has the potential to transform banking with new solutions for productivity and innovation. But, as Pylarinou pointed out, “we’re going beyond general productivity applications in banking.”

The recipe for success starts with the basics: structured data from reports and social channels, just as a cake requires butter, flour, eggs and sugar. But assembling these ingredients requires a clear vision of how each component should integrate with the rest.

Precision and preparation for a successful AI recipe

“Success is in the details,” said Sharka, emphasising the need for careful process management when implementing AI. “It’s all about the process and understanding which ingredients to blend together.”

Sharka highlighted how banks need to approach AI with a structured mindset, breaking down the details for success and creating “ready-made mixes” for clients who prefer plug-and-play solutions.

“Not everyone bakes from scratch,” he noted. Some clients benefit from curated mixes – predefined, customisable AI models – while others choose to experiment with their own data “ingredients.” His company, iGenius, simplifies this process by providing large language model (LLM) blends and plugins to empower banks with tailored AI capabilities.

Structuring the kitchen: people and processes as key ingredients

Cavallo then likened the banking AI journey to a bustling kitchen, stressing the need for everyone in the organisation to understand their role from the “head chef” (AI strategist) to the “kitchen porter” (support staff).

“We’re thinking of the various chefs in the kitchen, making sure we consider risk, cybersecurity, talent and training,” she said.

Cavallo underscored the importance of a structured approach to governance, noting that a core governance framework is essential for ensuring quality and compliance across AI implementations. To make this shift, she advocated for continuous education and training.

“The human will always be in the loop,” she added, emphasising that while AI is powerful, humans remain essential for oversight, quality control and ethical decision-making.

Microsoft provides the essential kitchen appliances for generative AI

Pichach described Microsoft’s role as providing the “ovens and mixers” to help enterprises start their AI journeys. Microsoft’s solutions, from Microsoft Azure to Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, offer banks the technology “recipes” to accelerate transformation while managing data, privacy and security. Pichach shared how Microsoft enabled one customer to support 45,000 contact centre agents with AI-driven knowledge management – a project that was initially expected to take two years but was completed in just four months due to employee enthusiasm.

In addition to the speed of adoption, Pichach highlighted the need for data governance and security.

“Security wins every single time,” he noted, pointing out that banks must prioritise protecting sensitive data as they deploy generative AI. Clients are also concerned with the pace of change and ensuring the underlying data is accurate. Pichach identified these areas as critical challenges in AI adoption, highlighting Microsoft’s commitment to a “security-first” approach to address these complexities.

A future-ready recipe for the AI-powered bank

While generative AI presents transformative opportunities, the panel speakers reinforced that successful AI integration requires more than just technology. It’s a combination of precise ingredients, process management and a well-equipped “kitchen.”

As generative AI adoption accelerates across industries, financial institutions are carefully assembling their recipes for success. With support from the Microsoft partner ecosystem, enterprises are creating custom AI-driven solutions, developing the skillsets and building the governance frameworks needed to meet future challenges.

Discover more news from Money 20/20 on our dedicated landing page.

Abortion rights advocates win in 7 states and clear way to overturn Missouri ban but lose in 3

US & Canada

Washington —  Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans in one of seven victories for abortion rights advocates, while Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place. Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana. Nevada voters also…

Citizen scientists can be chemists — give them a chance

Science and Health

What do the brain map of the fruit fly, the location of exoplanet WASP-77 A b, the identification of antibiotic resistance in the bacterium Escherichia coli and crop security of the cassava plant (Manihot esculenta) in Uganda have in common? They are all the subjects of breakthroughs made possible by citizen scientists.Members of the public have long engaged in scientific pursuits — they were recording locust outbreaks in China nearly 2,000 years ago, for example. Today, amateur researchers can help to track endangered animals, record weather events and hunt for galaxies.Use citizen science to turbocharge big-data projectsBut chemistry can seem out of reach for amateur scientists, with its laboratory work technicalities and essential safety protocols. These concerns are valid — yet surmountable, as my foray into participative chemistry shows.In 2015, I was struggling to make enough samples for a research project. My colleague Julia Parker and I wanted to understand the formation of calcium carbonate — a compound found in natural materials ranging from chalk and pearl to the shells of eggs and molluscs.Pure calcium carbonate comes in three crystalline forms — calcite, vaterite and aragonite. In nature, amino acids and proteins determine which type is made, but it’s unclear how. We aimed to explore the effects of various additives, their concentrations and reaction times. But it would have taken us about 200 days to make the 1,000 samples we wanted, plus the time needed to clean mountains of glassware. We couldn’t fit this around our other commitments.But we realized that secondary schools use most of the chemicals needed, and so pupils, teachers and lab technicians might be able to help us. We approached 110 schools through national teaching networks and advertising in the media, asking for 10 samples per school. We named the effort Project M, after 1,000 in Roman numerals.Data on SDGs are riddled with gaps. Citizens can helpProject M scientists synthesized calcium carbonate with certain additives. They weighed starting materials, mixed and filtered solutions, dried the resulting powders and prepared them for characterization — keeping rigorous records. They sent us their samples and we ran a 24-hour experiment to reveal the crystals’ structures.In the end, 80% of the schools participated, and 20% of these did not send the 10 samples requested, because some teachers could not fit the experiments — two sessions of 45 minutes each — into their tight curricula. From the 659 suitable samples we received, we identified additives that favoured or deterred the formation of vaterite, and found that the structure of calcite expands to incorporate additives, but that of vaterite doesn’t (C. A. Murray et al. CrystEngComm 26, 753–763; 2024).When I tell fellow chemists and other scientists about Project M, many ask if school samples can be trusted. Some wonder whether we sacrificed scientific rigour. We did not.Any results are only as good as the experiment’s design and data. We carefully designed a robust protocol, working with teachers. We found out what equipment they had; we provided chemicals, filter paper and funnels; we used units and terms that schools were familiar with. The schools ran control tests and repeated measurements.Trust goes both ways. Just as chemists must be able to trust the data provided by citizen scientists, participants must be able to understand the aim and steps of a project. Our team built a website to allow all participants to check their results, identify which structure they had made and compare their results with others.There are risky experiments that amateur chemists should not perform. But the contents of a secondary-school lab hold more possibilities than you might have thought. And many teachers have done chemistry degrees, research or lab work. Their expertise can set experiments up for success.Asteroid collisions show how much amateur astronomers have to offerCitizen scientists, like professional ones, have various motivations. Fantastic participative chemistry projects can be initiated or led by non-chemists. Some existing ones are grounded in local, traditional or Indigenous communities — such as an effort by women in Yolombó, Colombia, to map mercury contamination from mines, and a project by members of the Shinnecock Nation to monitor water quality and track microbial sources in Shinnecock Bay, New York.Many Project M students told us how proud they were to be taking part in a real research project. Teachers were keen to reuse skills from their degrees. And our colleagues were excited about our unusual collaborators.The project was a lot of work — it took two years for us to even approach schools — but it was much more enriching than making all the samples ourselves. We learnt a lot (see C. A. Murray et al. Front. Commun. 8, 1229616; 2023). If we were to embark on such a collaboration again, we would provide better visual resources for the students to present to their peers, create an online community for teachers and ask each school for fewer samples.For me, the most rewarding part of Project M is that it led to meaningful science. We explored a chemical space that was too vast to tackle on our own, with some incredibly enthusiastic collaborators. I was surprised by their insights and their commitment to rigour. And we expanded the range of people who might see themselves as chemists.The world is full of budding scientists ready to make and break chemical bonds. Their curiosity can lead you down (reaction) pathways you never expected.