A tale of obsessive love that morphs into a narrative on the Holocaust, a novel unfolding aboard a space station, and a story set in a convent plagued by mice are just three of the six contenders vying for this year’s Booker Prize. This prestigious literary award, set to announce its winner in London on Tuesday, has previously honored works like Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, and Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin.

Which of these new nominees is most deserving of joining this esteemed list? Share your views in the comments.

The top contender, as favored by British bookmakers, is James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, reimagined from the perspective of Jim, the Black man escaping enslavement. Critic Dwight Garner, in The New York Times, praised the novel’s emotional depth, calling it “Everett’s most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful.”

In interviews, Everett mentioned that the idea for James emerged during a tennis match, leading him to wonder if anyone had ever retold Twain’s classic. “It was a thought-provoking question,” he shared, adding with humor, “though it might explain my poor tennis that day.”

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Next in line, according to bookmakers, is Orbital, a tale of six astronauts stationed on a space orbit. The Times critic Joshua Ferris described the book as “nearly plotless. No alien invasion, no malevolent planet.” Despite this, Ferris praised the novel’s beauty, enriched by themes of ecology, time, and spirituality, noting that “sometimes, wonder and beauty are enough.”

In a recent BBC interview, Harvey recounted how watching hours of Earth footage during the pandemic felt like “a beautiful liberation,” while writing about six people confined to a space station.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

Kushner’s latest work follows a hired spy infiltrating a commune of eco-activists in France, hired by agricultural firms aiming to neutralize the group. Kushner told The Times that writing Creation Lake was “the most fun I’ve ever had” and that she found herself preferring the fictional world she’d created to reality.

Reviewers praised her work, with Dwight Garner stating it “cements Kushner’s position among today’s finest English-language novelists.” In contrast, The Financial Times’ Mia Levitin remarked that the novel’s philosophical musings made it “disappointingly easy to put down.”

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

The Safekeep has drawn attention for its candid exploration of passion and secrecy in 1960s Netherlands. Although some readers note its explicit content, Booker Prize judges highlight the novel’s atmosphere and the nuanced story of an intense relationship between Isabel and Eva, unfolding alongside a subtle exploration of Holocaust memory.

Van der Wouden shared that the book evolved from a short story about a tense family dinner, leading The Times’ Lori Soderlind to describe it

as “quietly remarkable” with no gratuitous detail.

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

In Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood’s seventh novel, a woman grapples with burnout and retreats to a convent, only to face solitude—and a swarm of mice. The Sunday Times’ Johanna Thomas-Corr called it “a mature work that confronts life head-on.”

Written during Covid-19 lockdowns and following a cancer diagnosis, Wood said the book was born from an instinct to “eliminate anything trivial.” Seeking “stillness amidst chaos,” Wood aimed for a restrained yet resonant tone.

Held by Anne Michaels

Lastly, Held—the bookmakers’ least favored contender—is a multigenerational saga beginning with a soldier in WWI, traversing through four generations. In The Times, Alida Becker highlighted Michaels’ lyrical style, likening the narrative to “a poetic mosaic of images and reflections,” a testament to her background as Toronto’s poet laureate.