Women's Prize Winner 2023

We've come to the end of another season of The Women's Prize for Fiction and what a fantastic ride it's been! I think the 2023 shortlist has some of the best overall quality we've seen in recent years. Such a great balance between two highly accomplished previous winners, really exciting debut novels and one very contentious book. But, of course, there could only be one champion. It was a thrill to be invited to the ceremony to see the winner being announced and I was overjoyed to have the opportunity to meet and chat with Barbara Kingsolver. She was so gracious and nice! We discussed how the opioid epidemic has also hit hard in my home state of Maine as well as the plot connections between her novel and Dickens' classic. Interestingly, she noted the character of Matt Peggot (known as “Maggot”) doesn't have an equivalent in “David Copperfield” because Dickens didn't know any boys like Maggot but she felt he should have a presence in her story. Well, the spirit of Dickens must have been cheering her on from the sidelines because Kingsolver was declared the winner and it was so exciting to be standing right in front of the stage to see it happen. She delivered such a heartfelt speech. Kingsolver is the first author to have won the Women's Prize twice! You can watch my vlog about going to the ceremony and party here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA1A0bBXtYs

This is another win for “Demon Copperhead” which was already declared the co-recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (alongside Hernan Diaz's “Trust”) and it's also been shortlisted for this year's Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. I fully understand the sentiment (rumoured to be shared by Kingsolver herself) that it would have been more beneficial for the prize to have gone to one of the debut authors on the list as their books and careers would be more enhanced by the attention. Kingsolver’s novel has already sold very well because the author is so well established and it was an Oprah’s book club choice. Certainly “Black Butterflies”, “Fire Rush” and “Trespasses” all contain such unique voices and present such vivid senses of place. I loved reading them and I hope more people will continue to read them. But the criteria for this book prize isn't to award the most promising new writer of the year. It's for the best novel written by a woman published in the past year. In my opinion, “Demon Copperhead” is the most skilful and powerful book on the shortlist so I'm absolutely delighted it's taken the prize!

Of course, I also can't help taking a little smug satisfaction in the fact that I've been advocating for this novel to win the Women's Prize even before the longlist was announced – as you can see in my predictions video with Anna. I made a video earlier this year explaining why I think “Demon Copperhead” should win every prize it's eligible for. And it looks like the novel is doing just that as it's sweeping all the book awards. It may take the surprise out of any book contest this year, but it's also a very worthy winner. I've heard from some readers who haven't been as moved by this novel as I was, but I know it's also touched many readers' hearts and minds. I'm grateful we have a great diversity of literature and points of view. But excellence is excellence. “Demon Copperhead” isn't just a modern retelling of a classic; it is a modern classic.

My Top Books of 2022

Here are my top 10 books of 2022! A video is up on my YouTube channel discussing all these titles and why they made the tippity top of my year's reading pile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R6z-i1zDws

As usual, I followed a lot of book prizes this year. The winner of the Booker Prize ended up being one of my favourite books. It was a thrill to be able to attend the award ceremony and learn that Shehan is a fan of my YouTube channel. It was wonderful to be able to interview Joyce Carol Oates again this year about her most recent novel as well as the new film adaptation of her novel “Blonde”. Of course, a real highlight of the year was having two books of my own published. I was commissioned to write these titles suggesting 50 great romances and 50 great mystery novels. It was a fun project and they’ve been turned into two lovely little books.

I read around a hundred books in the past year but these are some which have made the most impact. From a mother struggling to find out how her daughter died to a recently deceased war photographer seeking his killer, these are gripping tales with characters embroiled in emotionally dramatic journeys. Many portray historic battles and wars through a personal lens. Others depict the deep personal impact chronic illness has upon the lives of families and lovers. These books bring to life the unique personality of characters caught in wide scale social and societal change. Some draw on the models of classic literature while others seem to invent their own form of storytelling.

A few such as “Demon Copperhead” and “Nights of Plague” stretch to hundreds of pages while others such as “Elena Knows” and “The Swimmers” are so slender they could be read in a day. There are scenes of heartbreaking cruelty as well as exquisite tenderness in novels such as “Bolla”, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” and “Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies” which stick out in my memory. Books like “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” and “The Colony” made me laugh as much as they made me cry. Some I read at the beginning of the year, but I only read “Trust” a few weeks ago and I was so struck by its inventive structure to reexamine the way we view history, capitalism and those in power.

Have you read any of these? What are the best things you've read this year?

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver uses the same structure and moral imperative of Dickens' “David Copperfield” to tell the enthralling and utterly convincing fictional story of Demon Copperhead, a charismatic boy born into an impoverished area of contemporary rural America. His real name is Damon Fields but he bears the nickname of the title which is what people called him as a boy because of his absent father who had a snake tattoo and copper-wire hair. But also it's a moniker he proudly adopts as a way of asserting his individuality and “You can't deny, it's got a power to it.” In a charmingly conversational and evocative manner he recounts the story of his life from his birth up through to his adulthood having survived an abusive stepfather, a mother grappling with substance abuse, foster care where he's forced into farm labour and drug addiction borne out of America's surging opioid crisis. There's a physicality to the language of this narrative which evokes the feel and texture of this adolescent boy's existence. His fiery spirit, wicked sense of humour and rational ability to navigate the challenges of his circumstances make his narrative mesmerising. Through his eyes we witness the state of a country where individuals in Demon's position can fall between the cracks and suffer from the stereotypes made about people in rural and low income areas.

It was especially meaningful reading this novel after having previously read Patrick Radden Keefe's searing nonfiction account “Empire of Pain” concerning the Sackler family's involvement in the pharmaceutical industry. This background knowledge of the financial drive to prescribe the drug OxyContin despite its highly addictive nature was useful as a large portion of the novel is concerned with characters unwittingly caught in this system – although I don't think it would have prevented me from appreciating the story if I hadn't been aware of it already. The way in which Kingsolver has dramatised this conflict and crisis powerfully shows the social and psychological implications of health services which are driven by profit rather than the welfare of patients. Demon is part of a whole generation whose early lives were stymied or cut short because of this drug and its addictive effects. The tragic way this plays out in the story makes this far-reaching issue intensely felt and it's utterly heartbreaking knowing this is merely one of countless examples of this drug's virulent influence.

I also appreciated the way this novel gives a complex picture of its hero's ethnicity. Demon knows he's from Melungeon heritage, but he only understands the real meaning of this over the course of the story. It taps into a whole history of citizens who experienced prejudice but were excluded from legal protection as their mixed racial heritage meant they didn't fit into a legally defined category. As he becomes more aware of the past and his position in the world, Demon comes to understand why some people react to him in the way they do and call him certain names. Through slurs to do with his race and regionality he comes to understand “A thing grows teeth when it's put into words.” Yet he also learns that terms intended to wound can be reclaimed and used to empower those who experience the deleterious effects of bigotry. This leads Demon to artistically harness satire as a means of counteracting the stereotypes inflicted upon him and those he loves in a cartoon series he draws titled “RedNeck”. Through his humour and intelligence, he's able to emerge from his perilous circumstances and fraught journey as a survivor with an important story to tell.