Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024 Shortlist

The Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024 Shortlist has just been announced. This years six finalists feature a far reaching collection of powerful stories showcasing the breadth of contemporary women’s literature

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Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024 Shortlist

Isabella Hammad and Claire Kilroy have been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024, alongside Ann Enright, V V Ganeshananthan, Aube Rey Lescure and Kate Grenville.

Aube Rey Lescure’s River East, River West (Duckworth Books), the only debut novel on the shortlist. Three of the authors have previously been nominated for the prize. V.V. Ganeshananthan was longlisted in 2009; Anne Enright has been longlisted twice (in 2008 and 2020) and shortlisted twice (in 2012 and 2016); and Kate Grenville won the prize in 2001 for The Idea of Perfection.

Monica Ali, chair of judging panel, said: “This year’s shortlist features six brilliant, thought-provoking and spell-binding novels that between them capture an enormous breadth of the human experience. Readers will be captivated by the characters, the luminous writing and the exquisite storytelling. Each book is gloriously compelling and inventive and lingers in the heart and mind long after the final page.”

On this years judging panel are writer Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀; illustrator Laura Dockrill; actor Indira Varma; and presenter Anna Whitehouse. The panel is chaired by author Monica Ali.

The Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the most successful, influential and popular literary prizes in the world, championing and amplifying women’s voices and nurturing a global community of readers.

The Prize was established in 1996 to highlight and remedy the imbalance in coverage, respect and reverence given to women writers versus their male peers, creating a platform for exceptional writing by women to shine.

The Prize is awarded annually to the author of the best full-length novel of the year written in English and published in the UK. The winner receives £30,000, anonymously endowed, and the ‘Bessie’, a bronze statuette created by the artist Grizel. The winner will be announced on June 13th 2024.

Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024 Shortlist

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

After years away from her family’s homeland, and reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir returns to Haifa to visit her older sister Haneen. On her arrival, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new.

When Sonia meets the charismatic Mariam, a local director, she joins a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Soon, Sonia is rehearsing with a dedicated, if competitive, group of men – yet as opening night draws closer, it becomes clear just how many obstacles stand before the troupe. Amidst it all, the life she once knew starts to give way to the exhilarating possibility of finding a new self in her ancestral home.

Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville

Dolly Maunder was born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society’s long-locked doors were starting to creak ajar for women. Growing up in a poor farming family in country New South Wales but clever, energetic and determined, Dolly spent her restless life pushing at those doors.

Kate Grenville uses family memories to imagine her way into the life of her grandmother. This is the story of a woman, working her way through a world of limits and obstacles, who was able—if at a cost—to make a life she could call her own. Her battles and triumphs helped to open doors for the women who came after.

Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy

In her first novel for over a decade, Claire Kilroy takes us deep into the early days of motherhood. Exploring the clash of fierce love for a new life with a seismic change in identity, she vividly realises the raw, tumultuous emotions of a new mother, as her marriage strains and she struggles with questions of love, autonomy and creativity. As she smiles at her baby, Sailor, while mentally composing her own suicide note, an old friend makes a welcome return, but can he really offer a lifeline to the woman she used to be?

River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure

Set against the backdrop of developing modern China, this mesmerizing literary debut is part coming-of-age tale, part family and social drama, as it follows two generations searching for belonging and opportunity in a rapidly changing world

In a stunning reversal of the east-to-west immigrant narrative and set against China’s political history and economic rise, River East, River West is an intimate family drama and a sharp social novel. Alternating between Alva and Lu Fang’s points of view, this is a profoundly moving exploration of race and class, cultural identity and belonging, and the often-false promise of the American Dream.

Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan

Set during the early years of Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war, Brotherless Night is a heartrending portrait of one woman’s moral journey and a testament to both the enduring impact of war and the bonds of home.

Jaffna, 1981. Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence. Desperate to act, Sashi accepts K’s invitation to work as a medic at a field hospital for the militant Tamil Tigers, who, following years of state discrimination and violence, are fighting for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority. But after the Tigers murder one of her teachers and Indian peacekeepers arrive only to commit further atrocities, Sashi begins to question where she stands and embarks on a dangerous path that will change her forever.

The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright

Nell is a young woman with adventure on her mind. As she sets out into the world, she finds her family history hard to escape. For her mother, Carmel, Nell’s leaving home opens a space in her heart, where the turmoil of a lifetime begins to churn. Over them both falls the long shadow of Carmel’s famous father, an Irish poet of beautiful words and brutal actions.

From our greatest chronicler of family life, The Wren, The Wren is a story of the love that can unite us, and the individual acts that threaten this vital bond.

On March 5th 2024 the Longlist was announced, with 16 Books on the List

Hangman by Maya Binyam
In Defence of the Act by Effie Black
And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott
The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright
The Maiden by Kate Foster
Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan
Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville
Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
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
River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure
A Trace of Sun by Pam Williams

Previous Winners of the Woman’s prize for Fiction include Barbara Kingsolver for Demon Copperhead in 2023, Ruth Ozeki with The Book of Form and Emptiness and the wonderful Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.

If you enjoyed Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024 Shortlist, check out International Booker Prize 2024