The shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024 was revealed earlier this week.
The list highlighted the six names and titles that have been selected from a longlist of 16. These works will now be contending for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, an award which celebrates and amplifies the voices of women worldwide.
The shortlist is as follows, in no particular order:
- The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright, published by Jonathan Cape
- Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan, published by Viking
- Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville, published by Canongate Books
- Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad, published by Jonathan Cape
- Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy, published by Faber & Faber
- River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure, published by Duckworth
The judging panel this year is chaired by Booker Prize-shortlisted writer Monica Ali. Joining her are authors Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ and Laura Dockrill; actor Indira Varma; and presenter and author Anna Whitehouse.
Regarding the chosen works, Ali said: “This year’s shortlist features six brilliant, thought-provoking and spellbinding novels that between them capture an enormous breadth of the human experience.”
She continued: “Readers will be captivated by the characters, the luminous writing and the exquisite storytelling.”
“Each book is gloriously compelling and inventive and lingers in the heart and mind long after the final page.”
Many of the works consist of characters navigating a seismic change in their identity, experiencing a period of self-reckoning, with some also dealing with generational trauma and women’s resilience in confronting the pain of the past.
Half the novels in the shortlist also explore the migrant experience through various lenses, with moving observations on, race, identity, and family, of the false promises of the West and the magnetism of home.
The winner is set to be announced on 13 June, with the winner receiving £30,000 and the ‘Bessie’, a bronze statuette created by the artist Grizel Niven.
Words by Faye Price
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