The author of Wild Houses, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, talks about his book’s small-town Irish setting, and the author who inspired him to write about the world he knew

The author of Headshot, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, talks about the personal experiences that inspired her novel and the shapeshifting power of Virginia Woolf

The author of James, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, on how he sees himself as being in conversation with the creator of Huckleberry Finn, and the skills he learnt from reading Tristram Shandy

The author of Orbital, winner of the Booker Prize 2024, on how her novel was 25 years in the making, and the work of translated fiction that haunts her

The author of Creation Lake, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, discusses her fascination with prehistory, and the writer who established a new set of language rules

The author of My Friends, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, talks about the classic that inspired him to become a writer, and why he always returns to Proust

The author of This Strange Eventful History, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, discusses the need to tell the stories of worldviews that have vanished, and five books she would describe as ‘perfect’

The author of Held, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, talks about how her novel explores the conflation of science with technology, and the books that have changed the way she thinks about the world 

The author of Wandering Stars, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, talks about the impact of his cultural heritage on his storytelling, and his journey from reader to writer

The author of Enlightenment, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, shares the childhood memory that inspired her latest book, and her admiration for the ‘faultless’ novel by J.L. Carr 

The author of Playground, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, talks about his journey from physics to fiction, and the surreal book that showed him a novel ‘could make its own rules’ 

The author of The Safekeep, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, talks about reimagining personal and national narratives, and the book from last year’s Booker shortlist that she can’t get out of her head

The author of Stone Yard Devotional, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, talks about finding inspiration in personal upheaval, and the stories that shaped her childhood