On International Women’s Day 2018, the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction was announced. Those 16 books were read and discussed by the panel of judges- Sarah Sands, Katy Brand, Anita Anand, Catherine Mayer, and Imogen Stubbs- and whittled down to a final sensational 6.
The process is tough as there is so much wonderful talent to choose from, but after heated debates and heartfelt advocacies for favourite novels the shortlist has been decided upon.
L-R: Imogen Stubbs, Katy Brand, Catherine Mayer, Sarah Sands, Anita Anand
Here are your six shortlisted winners:
“A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself. The Idiot is a heroic yet self-effacing reckoning with the terror and joy of becoming a person in a world that is as intoxicating as it is disquieting. Batuman’s fiction is unguarded against both life’s affronts and its beauty–and has at its command the complete range of thinking and feeling which they entail.”
“One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid. In this spell-binding story of curiosity and obsession, Imogen Hermes Gowar has created an unforgettable jewel of a novel, filled to the brim with intelligence, heart and wit.”
“It seemed, at times, an act of profound selfishness, to have a child so that I might become a parent; but selfish, too, to have a child and stay the same, or not to have one – unless the only honest choice would have been to try to become this kinder version of myself without the need to bring another into it …Sight is about X-rays, psychoanalysis, and the origins of modern surgery. It is about being a parent, and being a child. Fiercely intelligent, brilliantly written and suffused with something close to forgiveness, it is a novel about how we see others and how we imagine ourselves.”
“Caught in the hook of love, a young woman marries a dashing university professor. She moves to a rain-washed coastal town to be with him, but behind closed doors she discovers that her perfect husband is a perfect monster. As he sets about battering her into obedience and as her family pressures her to stay in the marriage, she swears to fight back – a resistance that will either kill her or set her free.”
“How can love survive betrayal?
For as long as they can remember, siblings Isma, Aneeka and Parvaiz have had nothing but each other. But darker, stronger forces will divide Parvaiz from his sisters and drive him to the other side of the world, as he sets out to fulfil the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew.”
“An intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle, Sing, Unburied, Singexamines the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power – and limitations – of family bonds. Rich with Ward’s distinctive, lyrical language, Sing, Unburied, Sing brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first century America. It is a majestic new work from an extraordinary and singular author.”
The finalist will be announced on the 6th of June 2018.
Best of luck to all the authors!
Send us a review if you have read one of the lucky shortlisters.
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