Here are the 16 novels longlisted for the 2025 Womens Prize for Fiction! A new video is up on my YouTube channel discussing all these titles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNcZNaEWJjE I'm glad to see some books I've read and enjoyed, some I've been wanting to read and others I've not heard of before.

It's an interesting group of authors who are not only novelists but include poets, short story writers, playwrights, academics and script editor on a soap opera. A few of them have been previously nominated for or won this prize before including Elizabeth Strout, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Laila Lalami. However, a wide range of new talent is being highlighted as there are 9 debut novelists on the list including Yael Van Der Wouden, Rosanna Pike, Kaliane Bradley, Lucy Steeds, Roisin O'Donnell, Saraid de Silva, Nussaibah Younis, Sanam Mahloudji and Aria Aber. In my predictions video with Anna I correctly guessed 3 of these books and Anna guessed 4.

Some of these books have been nominated for other book prizes such as “The Safekeep” (Booker Prize 2024), “All Fours” (National Book Award for Fiction 2024), “The Ministry of Time” (Waterstones 2024 Debut Fiction) as well as “Crooked Seeds” and “Somewhere Else” which are currently on the Republic of Consciousness Prize shortlist. There are some authors who have previously won or been listed for this prize who I was surprised not to see listed such as Ali Smith, Eimear McBride and Elif Shafak's “There Are Rivers in the Sky” who some (including myself) not only predicted would be listed but probably would win this year's prize.

Of course, there's also the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction longlist which I've already enjoyed reading a couple titles from. But I'm excited to start reading more books on the fiction list and continuing to discuss the ones I have already read. “Tell Me Everything” is an absolute delight as it not only presents an emotional mystery concerning a reclusive man charged with murdering his mother, but it continues to explore the evolving relationships and lives of characters from Strout's previous novels. I'm most surprised and delighted to see “A Little Trickerie” which is such an immerse story about a young woman in medieval England who struggles to survive so devises a scheme to con people out of money by pretending to be an angel. “The Safekeep” is such a tense, twisty story which also gives a complex view of post-WWII Europe. “The Ministry of Time” is an inventive and entertaining mixture of sci-fi, romance and social commentary. And “All Fours” manages to treat its autobiographically inspired sexually-intrepid protagonist with absolute serious while also gently poking fun at her. I'm sure there will be many others from this list I'll enjoy reading.