Place your bets… The Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist has been announced!
Granted, Swansea Librarians love books but we also love a competition, so when we heard who was on the Women’s Prize for Fiction, shortlist, announced 28th April, we just had to shout about it.
The Prize, one of the most respected, celebrated and successful literary awards in the world has highlighted the very best writing for women for the last 25 years. This year’s shortlist of six books is a accomplished and diverse offering, including two British authors, two American, one Barbadian, and one Ghanaian/ American author. The judging panel acknowledged their tough job picking only six shortlisted titles, saying; “Fiction by women defies easy categorisation or stereotyping, and all of these novels grapple with society’s big issues expressed through thrilling storytelling. We feel passionate about them, and we hope readers do too.”
So who is on the list and more importantly what are the books like? Here is Swansea Libraries take on the runners and riders in this year’s completion and our insider picks for the winner.
The Vanishing Half- Brit Bennett
Ostensibly, about the American history of passing, Bennett deftly weaves multiple generations and strands together to produce a realistic, sensitive and thoughtful meditation on the forces that govern a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the reasons in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.
Piranesi – Susannah Clarke
Mystery and magic from the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell. Susannah Clarke is not weighed down by the burden of her famous novel, instead, in Piranesi, she has written a philosophical tour de force, a timely study of solitude. Accessible and engaging, fans of mythology and classic literature will love her references deftly woven into a story about the moral philosophy of fantasy– with a twist.
Unsettled Ground – Claire Fuller
This is the marmite option – the synopsis leaves many cold but is also the book that should win so fight the urge to put it back on the shelf. Page turning, gothic and claustrophobic by turns, Fuller brings, often ignored, rural poverty into sharp focus. A story of betrayal and resilience, of middle-aged life on society’s fringes. Read for escapism and especially if you liked Elmet by Fiona Mozley.
Transcendent Kingdom – Yaa Gyasi
Ethics, religion and prescription drug addiction feature in this powerful, multi-layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama. Gyasi looks at the American Dream turned nightmare from the dreamer’s point of view. This immensely quotable book uses the ethical tension of discovery versus morality to drive a redemptive narrative of how we make sense of our collective pasts in the modern world. It is so good, it could win.
No one is talking About This – Patricia Lockwood
A realistic social media novel? Reminiscent of local Swansea author Joe Dunthorne, this original, funny, abstract, expertly executed work of auto-fiction portrays the fishbowl world of social media and explores what happens when life clogs the filter. Lockwood reminds her readers that there is life outside the psychedelic rabbit-hole of social media whilst asking profound questions on the nature of love, language and human connection.
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House – Cherie Jones
A cautionary tale of paradise lost and what happens when girls disobey their mothers. Set in tourist-trap Barbados new author Jones paints a violent tale of three marriages, the dichotomy of wealth and odds of survival. Fast-paced and character driven this is one for not putting down.
So, our Swansea Libraries prediction for a winner?
Claire Fuller, Unsettled Ground by a nose, with Yaa Gyasi ,Transcendent Kingdom and Susannah Clarke, Piranesi in a photo finish for second place.
The 26th winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction will be announced on Wednesday 7th July.