Here are the 6 novels shortlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction! A new video is up on my YouTube channel giving my instant reaction to the list and discussing each book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amh06jLxKeY
It's been a pleasure reading all of these excellent novels. It's especially interesting how this fiction approaches similar subject matter from different angles – generations of family life, individuals caught in large scale conflict, cultural displacement and motherhood. Some use multiple perspectives to show different angles to a story while others are firmly rooted in a first person point of view. There are tales set in the distant past and others that take place in our present time.
There's a high level of regional diversity from Ireland to Sri Lanka to Singapore to New South Wales to Palestine. There are highly established authors such as Anne Enright and Kate Grenville as well as debut novelist Aube Rey Lescure. It also feels like these new titles by Isabella Hammad, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Claire Kilroy are overdue for prize attention. I think it's a very strong group of books and would highly recommend reading all of them.
“The Wren, The Wren” was the first novel I read this year and, while I think some of Enright's other books are stronger, I thoroughly enjoyed how this tale evokes the life of a mother and her adult daughter while slyly skewering the patriarchy – especially arrogant writers. I was completely captivated by “River East, River West” which so creatively presents a different kind of strained mother/daughter relationship with the introduction of a complex step-father. I read “Soldier, Sailor” right after the longlist was announced and the high praise this harrowing novel about early motherhood has been getting is well deserved. I've read “Restless Dolly Maunder”, “Brotherless Night” and “Enter Ghost” more recently so I'm still processing my thoughts about them but found them all engrossing.
It's a shame “In Defence of the Act”, “Western Lane”, “Ordinary Human Failings”, “Nightbloom” and “Hangman” didn't make the cut but this is how competitions go. We've also had such interesting conversations about “And Then She Fell” with my online book club. However, honestly, it's not really about winners and losers but the pleasure of discovering and discussing books I might not otherwise read. I've certainly found many I enjoyed from this year's prize.
What do you think of the shortlist?
