Announcement of the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist

One recurring subject among the nominated works for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction is migration.

The first novel “River East, River West,” written by French-Chinese-American Aube Rey Lescure, has been nominated. The book, which is set amid China’s economic boom, gives a distinctive perspective on the classic east-to-west immigration narrative. Lescure is the only debut author on this year’s shortlist, even though debuts comprise almost half of the longlist.

Hammad, a British writer with a Palestinian father, made the “Enter Ghost” shortlist. The story follows actress Sonia as she visits her sister in Haifa after leaving London and joining an Arabic staging of Hamlet on the West Bank. The narrative offers a close-up view of the protagonist’s journey in addition to more comprehensive insights into the difficulties Palestinians confront on a daily basis.

American author VV Ganeshananthan, who is of Tamil origin from Sri Lanka, was considered for the Brotherless Night shortlist. The story, which takes place in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, is on a young woman who wants to become a doctor before a civil war breaks out and engulfs her nation and her village in deadly political unrest. The book is said to provide a remarkable story of the Sri Lankan civil war by fusing the intimacy of a memoir with the breadth and depth of an epic.

On June 13, there will be an event in London to unveil the £30,000 prize winner and announce the first winner of the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction. Six excellent works that together cover a broad range of human experiences make up the shortlist. The judges praised these pieces as clever and thought-provoking, pointing out that readers would be captivated by the vivid writing, superb narrative, and engaging characters. Every book is unique, engrossing, and leaves a lasting impact that lasts long beyond the last page.

Grenville, an Australian writer who was nominated for “Restless Dolly Maunder,” has again won the Women’s Prize (formerly known as the Orange Prize), which she won in 2001 for “The Idea of Perfection.” Grenville’s maternal grandmother was born at the end of the 19th century, and this book reimagines her life and her struggle for freedom. Grenville’s capacity to create imagery that is transcendentally clear is complimented throughout the tale. It is defined as a work that demonstrates the enormous power of literary creativity to provide healing, atonement, and a better understanding. It is a fusion of history, biography, tale, and memoir.

‘The Wren, The Wren,’ Enright’s nominated book, delves into the bond between a poet’s granddaughter and daughter. The novel is praised for both Enright’s characteristic vivid characterizations and her use of sarcastic, almost surreal humor to complement her astute observations of human foolishness.

‘Soldier Sailor,’ a representation of early motherhood portrayed as an internal monologue from a mother to her kid, was written by fellow Irish author Claire Kilroy and made the list. Kilroy describes his first book in a decade as a whole-body event. The story is brief but completely unrelenting, striking the reader with all of its power as if it were spoken in a single breath.

Actor Indira Varma, presenter and author Anna Whitehouse, and author and cartoonist Laura Dockrill were among the judges with Ali and Adébáỳ.

The following ten longlist titles were not selected for the shortlist: ‘Hangman’ by Maya Binyam; ‘In Defence of the Act’ by Effie Black; ‘And Then She Fell’ by Alicia Elliott; ‘The Maiden’ by Kate Foster; ‘8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster’ by Mirinae Lee; ‘The Blue, Beautiful World’ by Karen Lord; ‘Western Lane’ by Chetna Maroo; ‘Nightbloom’ by Peace Adzo Medie; ‘Ordinary Human Failings’ by Megan Nolan; and ‘A Trace of Sun’ by Pam Williams.

Previous winners of the award include Susanna Clarke for “Piranesi,” Maggie O’Farrell for “Hamnet,” and Ruth Ozeki for “The Book of Form and Emptiness.” ‘Demon Copperhead,’ which also won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, brought Barbara Kingsolver the honor in 2023.