Women's Prize for Fiction 2023 Shortlist Predictions
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ค. 2024
- The Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist will be announced on April 26 so I'm here with some quick predictions about which 6 novels will be selected based on what I've read so far. Click ‘Show More’ for info.
--------------------
My video discussing the 2023 Women's Prize longlist: • Women's Prize for Fict...
Find out more about the Women's Prize for Fiction: womensprizeforfiction.co.uk
April 26 Shortlist
June 14 Winner
I was a guest on the Women's Prize Plodalong Liveshow w/ Charlie, Alice & Gem: • Women's Prize Plodalon...
Books discussed and purchase links:
Glory - NoViolet Bulawayo
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978152...
Homesick - Jennifer Croft
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978191...
Fire Rush - Jacqueline Crooks
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978178...
Children of Paradise - Camilla Grudova
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978183...
Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978152...
Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978057...
Trespasses - Louise Kennedy
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978152...
Cursed Bread - Sophie Mackintosh
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978024...
The Dog of the North - Elizabeth McKenzie
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978000...
Black Butterflies - Priscilla Morris
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978071...
The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O'Farrell
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978147...
I'm a Fan - Sheena Patel
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978178...
Pod - Laline Paull
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978147...
Wandering Souls - Cecile Pin
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978000...
The Bandit Queens - Parini Shroff
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978183...
Memphis - Tara M Stringfellow
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978152...
My full reviews of some of these novels:
Glory - NoViolet Bulawayo
• Glory by NoViolet Bula...
Fire Rush - Jacqueline Crooks
• Fire Rush by Jacquelin...
Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver
• Demon Copperhead by Ba...
The Dog of the North - Elizabeth McKenzie
lonesomereader.com/blog/2023/...
The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O'Farrell
• The Marriage Portrait ...
Wandering Souls - Cecile Pin
lonesomereader.com/blog/2023/...
--------------------
Get in touch
Book Blog: lonesomereader.com/
Twitter: / lonesomereader
Instagram: / lonesomereader
Facebook: tinyurl.com/hfkkhus
Goodreads: tinyurl.com/h8uus5t
LetterBoxd: letterboxd.com/lonesomereader/
Tiktok: / lonesomereader
Email: lonesomereader@gmail.com
I reread 1984 after hearing you talk about it again. After fifty years it still leaves a punch. There is still something in Humans that cannot be controlled. I will look forward to your discussion.
I’m so glad you found it worth the revisit!
I am going to plump for Demon Copperhead, The Marriage Portrait, The Bandit Queens, Memphis, Wandering Souls and Stone Blind for the shortlist! A great list this year and I've really enjoyed exploring it. Still reading furiously until next Wednesday....
Ah, interesting! Great! 📚
Thank you Eric. Always enjoy your videos! 😊❤
Thanks! 📚
You should record you and Anna talking about Demon Copperhead - I’d watch that 😊
Good idea!
I have Glory and Stone Blind on hold at my library at the moment, hoping they will be available in the next month or so. Really looking forward to reading them
I'm on my 14th book of the longlist and Wandering Souls is still my favourite - so happy to enjoyed it! I wasn't sure it would make the shortlist, but it brings me hope that it's on your predictions!
So surprised to see The Dog of the North on your 'maybe' list haha it was the most random thing I've read in a long time! Need to find your review of it!
Interesting! I've just drafted a blog post with my wishlist and predictions - my predictions are, bizarrely, identical to yours, so I feel I have to stress that I wrote them before I watched this video! (I do think I'm A Fan has a good shot but ended up missing it off as well). My wishlist, however, is a bit different: Fire Rush, I'm A Fan, Homesick, The Marriage Portrait, Trespasses and Cursed Bread, though I'm only really backing the first four.
Great minds think alike! 😄
I’m really looking forward to reading Homesick.
Stone Blind was great also.
Great video once again Eric! I've only finished two of them so far: Bandit Queens and Memphis and enjoyed both. I'm half way through Demon (which is brilliant) and Dog of the North, which is totally bonkers. Would like to see all four on the shortlist. Look forward to your video next week
thank you! I'm so glad you're finding Kingsolver's novel brilliant. Excited to see what actually makes the list.
The Marriage Portrait and Tresspasses are two books I loved that I hope to see on the shortlist! I wasn't as big of a fan as you were of Wandering Souls it seems, but I can understand why so many liked it! The story was good, I just wasn't a fan of the many perspectives. I still have 6 books left to read that I feel also have a chance to make the shortlist, but I'll be getting to them after it's announced I'm sure. Thanks for the video, I was looking forward to hearing your thoughts! :)
Interesting to hear, thank you! 📚
Currently reading Demon Copperhead. It's incredible. I have read The Marriage Portrait, POD, I'm a Fan and Trespasses and really really enjoyed them also. So far my reading experience for this year's prize has been great. I'm never very good at predicting but I think Demon and The Marriage Portrait will be on the shortlist! I think they really should be. Planning to read The Bandit Queens next but don't want Demon to finish. It's such a joy 😊
I'm so glad you're as impressed with Kingsolver's novel as I am! And definitely get to The Bandit Queens at some point because I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
I’ve read 9 of the books so far. I’m really not sure what will make the shortlist as there is such variety, but my top favourite and top prediction is Demon Copperhead. I also expect to see The Marriage Portrait and maybe Fire Rush of the ones I’ve read. I think you are right that Glory will be shortlisted even though I didn’t love it. Wandering Souls is one I think will go through, I’m hoping to read that soon. I also think The Bandit Queens or I’m A Fan may go though. I enjoyed hearing your thoughts and predictions. 😊📚
Yay Kingsolver! 😊 I'm actually thinking Glory might not be on the shortlist now (I'm so changeable!) but it's still a strong contender. Hope you love Wandering Souls as much as I did.
Great list! I hope to see I'm a Fan on the shortlist as well. Children of Paradise was my personal favorite, but it's probably a longshot :)
Interesting! Thanks!
i loved this video - sad to miss anna but excited to hear your joint thoughts on the shortlist! for the first time, i've read the whole longlist (whew!) and enjoyed the task but am taking a little literary fiction break now. my personal shortlist would be Demon Copperhead (hope it wins!), Trespasses, Stone Blind, Cursed Bread, Wandering Souls, and Children of Paradise. i liked a few other books - especially Memphis, Homesick and Fire Rush - but felt like some were a big let down. especially Pod and Glory - maybe i couldn't suspend my disbelief enough for the animal elements! very very excited for the shortlist announcement, I'll be picketing women's prize HQ if Demon Copperhead doesn't make it!!!!!
Thank you! 😊📚 And congrats on reading all of them. Quite a marathon! I'm hoping to read Children of Paradise soon. And I'll be with you on the picket line if Kingsolver isn't shortlisted. 😄
I finished Wandering Souls last night and really loved it. I'd love to see it on the shortlist. The only other book on the longlist I've read is The Bandit Queens, which I also loved but I'm not sure it will make the shortlist. I'm slowly making my way through the other books I want to get to on the longlist.
I'm so glad you felt similarly about Wandering Souls! And it'd be great if The Bandit Queens was shortlisted.
I’m almost done reading Wandering Souls and I’d love to see it on the shortlist. It’s a unique and moving view into the immigrant experience. Quietly powerful. Demon Copperhea and Trespasses also are my shortlist choices. I read Dog of the North and although I’m not sure it will make the shortlist it was the fun palate cleanser I didn’t know I needed (and much better craft-wise than the Portable Veblen that also was fun but for which I had many more quibbles!). It’s a good long-list, I think (although Gabrielle Zevin’s book was a HUGE omission).
Definitely! Thanks for your thoughts. 📚
I've read only The Marriage Portrait and Trespasses. I liked them both a lot. I'd probably rate Marriage Portrait a little higher. I'm planning to read Fire Rush next. I've had it on hold at the library, and I just saw that it is marked "in transit" now so it should arrive in a day or two. I just put a library hold on Wandering Souls after hearing you praise it. Eventually I'll get to Demon C. I've read almost every book Kingsolver has written and have not been disappointed yet. The only one I have not read yet is Unsheltered, which was not as universally loved as her other work, but I'll get to that one too eventually.
I’ve read 12 and nearly finished Demon Copperhead. Loved Glory but think they might chose Pod instead.
Also wanted Memphis on the short loved that book.
Interesting list Eric. I have read others including Stone Blind and Pod. Unlike you I was not so transfixed by Wandering Souls - I thought it started off well but then something went awry. Not sure I felt there was a lot of depth, but hey it is her first novel and well done for getting on to the longlist. As much as I loved.both Demon Copperhead and The Marriage Portrait, it would be good if somebody less known won. Loved Glory and a big fan of Louise Kennedy
Sorry to hear Wandering Souls didn't work for you. And I know what you mean about how it'd be good if a lesser known author won. Maybe it'll be Trespasses!
Wandering Souls is my favourite from the list and I really hope it is shortlisted and wins.
I miss you and Anna going back and forth on your guesses but I hope she is well and getting along with David Copperfield.
My list would be
Wandering Souls
Stone Blind
(And then I've read Glory, Trespasses, Cursed Bread, and Dog of The North) but would guess
I'm A Fan
Marriage Portrait
Demon Copperhead
Bandit Queens
It'd be wonderful if Wandering Souls won and more exciting to see a debut take the prize. But then, Demon Copperhead is amazing.
Thanks for your short list wish list! 😊📚
I just finished “Dog..” and WACKY fits it perfectly!
Definitely! 😄
I read David Copperfield and Demon Copperhead back to back and it was a ride!! So fascinating to see the parallels and also the ways in which Kingsolver went off script and created brand new powerful situations and characters.
Great! I might go back and read Dickens now.
I have only read 6 so far. Of those I would like to see Pod, Wandering Souls and the Bandit Queens shortlisted, particularly Pod.
It was fascinating watching this after seeing some of Britta’s reviews - she will have a completely different shortlist!😅
I am looking forward to reading Trespasses. I hear so many negative reviews, but I just read a book about the history of Modern Ireland during the time of the troubles that really conveyed the mindset of Irish people in Modern Times and am looking forward to see Louise's perspective and how it differs or agrees.
It's so good and I've mostly seen positive reviews so I hope you'll really appreciate - especially with the added knowledge about recent times in Ireland.
Initially I thought this was a likely longlist, but then I realised you were missing I'm A Fan... I hope you find a spot for it once you get a chance to read it. 🙂
Haha, I'm definitely planning on reading it soon.
It wouldn't surprise me if your predictions are correct, but I really hope Black Butterflies makes the shortlist. That and Wandering Souls are my dark horse picks. I haven't read Fire Rush yet though, and I am really looking forward to that!
I’m hoping to read Black Butterflies soon.
I am currently reading Wandering Souls and the Marriage Portrait. They are both really good. I am also listening to Cursed Bread which seems okay so far. Maybe it's the format.
I finished reading Memphis. It was the book that looked the most intriguing based on the blurb. But it ended up being disappointing. The writing was really good when describing the places (I guess this makes sense this is a book about Memphis). But the actions/thoughts of the characters aren't really discussed that in detail. I think the last chapter with the roadtrip with Mya and Joan might have been the best chapter.
I'm a fan isn't available in the US yet. I am waiting to borrow Tresspasses and Bandit queens from my library. I might actually buy Firerush.
I'm also hoping Demon Copperhead might make the shortlist. So I'm waiting to read it before the winner is announced. It might also win the Pullitzer.
I will try to read Glory next if I can do before the shortlist is announced. A lot of people had mixed emotions about the book and I've heard many people say not to think of it as African Animal Farm, but just political fiction told through animals
My favourites so far have been Black Butterflies and Pod. I'm currently struggling with The Marriage Portrait, but I expect it to make the shortlist. I didn't think much of I'm a Fan, I'm afraid. In fact, I suspect what I look for in a novel is quite different from what judging panels like 😂
Interesting! 📚
I’ve read all 16 and am having a very hard time predicting a shortlist (which I know will be very different from my personal favorites). I think DC and Fire Rush are pretty likely, along with Bandit Queens and I’m a Fan. I could make a case for almost all of the others, even the ones I didn’t like. I’d be quite happy with your set of six as well.
That's so impressive! 📚 Yeah, you never know which way the judges will go and some very strong candidates. We'll see if your favourites make it!
Just finished The Dog of the North and I'm incredulous it was published, let alone nominated for any awards, and I say that as someone who loved the author's previous novel. Read others on your list, so far, Demon Copperhead is the winner for me.
100% agree with your list. Fire Rush and Wandering Souls were great discoveries. Demon Copperhead and Glory weren't to my taste but I can see why they're being picked up for awards
Thank you! So glad you feel enthusiastic about Fire Rush and Wandering Souls too.
I'm listening to Demon Copperhead now, on Audible. tbh, perhaps it was not best reading it so close to David Copperfield because Kingsolver closely parallels the storyline. So closely that I know what is about to happen, and well, that's kind of the definition of a spoiler, no? Well, that's my problem. I'm about to order Anne Sexton's Collected Poems to read this year. I have great familiarity with her contemporary, Sylvia Plath but this will be my first serious reading of her complete work. The other night I finished The Human Stain, and so soon I'll be reading Nela Larson's Passing. Looking forward to it.
Anna needs to work on her priorities. Haha. I’m most looking forward The Dog of The North as I really enjoyed the Portable Veblen. But I’m looking forward to several. I need to concentrate on the prize season and stop being distracted. Congrats on reading so many already. I need to go read your review on The Dog as I just saw that post.
Great picks I would swap Black Butterflies for Glory which I know is admirable but I didn't really enjoy, Black Butterflies was a surprise for me I loved it
Oh great, I'm hoping to read Black Butterflies soon!
I’m half way through book 16. DC and the Marriage Portrait are my top picks but I am hoping to see I’m a Fan on the shortlist. It surprised me. The other 3 are tricky. Black butterflies? Fire rush? Memphis?
Oh wow, well done! Yeah, I think strong cases could be made for shortlisting several of the books.
I’m hoping Demon Copperhead makes the shortlist! Question: how many books do you read each week? I try to finish 3 but don’t always do so. But I feel we are kindred spirits when it comes to reading.
Great! I usually read 2-3 per week but it obviously depends on length. I've spent most of this week reading a 500+ page novel.
The only one of these I've read is Wandering Souls, which I loved. I do have The Marriage Portrait and Bandit Queens on my TBR and I want to get to Demon Copperhead...eventually!
Fab, thanks! 📚
Black butterflies wondering souls deamon copper head dog of the north fire rush and the marriage by Maggie my top 6
I followed the Women’s Prize for Fiction for the first time back in 2020, and then again the following year. I don’t know whether my immersion on these occasions was due to COVID, and reading becoming a bit of a lifeline, a glorious escape from the unrelenting misery of the news, or whether the nominated titles were just especially strong, but last year, I found myself a little adrift and feeling quite indifferent to a lot of the longlisted novels. The apathy was not helped by Ruth Ozeki going on to claim the crown (dare I say it, but The Book of Form and Emptiness was my least favourite of the 12 or so books I read) and I later found myself much more invested in the Booker Prize, which, for me, boosted one of its strongest and most eclectic line-ups in many a year last autumn.
But moving on to this year’s Women’s Prize, and I think I’m falling down somewhere in the middle - I think we’ve ended up with a solid longlist, which has struck a nice balance between familiar faces and new voices.
That said, the Maggie O’Farrell/Natalie Haynes double whammy is giving me 2020 vibes, particularly since they’re nominated for another historical novel/mythical re-telling respectively. As such, I’m not confident either will make the leap from longlist to shortlist. The Marriage Plot is a really impressive piece of work, but it’s not Hamnet (but then again, what is?). Hamnet was special and such a deserving winner. But, given its victory came only 3 years ago, I just can’t see O’Farrell being in with a shot again so soon. It wouldn’t be a particularly bold choice. Had it been the other way around - i.e. had The Marriage Plot won previously, and had Hamnet then been the follow-up, my take would be very different! As for Stone Blind, it’s very similar to A Thousand Ships, both in its writing and in terms of its quality. The judges may be thinking that Haynes missed out last time, so now is her time, but somehow I doubt it, entertaining as it no doubt was. I don’t think it stands out enough, and we’ve had Madeline Miller awarded in the past for working wonders with Greek myths so the Women’s Prize has arguably ‘been there done that’.
That brings us on to Barbara Kingsolver, also a former recipient of the WP, and her epic, sprawling Dickensian reimagining. I had a good time with this novel and, having read David Copperfield back in my teens (long time ago), much fun was had spotting the parallels and seeing how the 19th century characters had been updated, with Victorian London ingeniously transplanted to become a similarly poverty-stricken modern-day Virginia. By and large, this was done creatively and convincingly; the childhood section particularly compelling. If I had to level one negative, I suppose it would be, did Demon Copperhead live too much in the shadow of the text which inspired it? Did it feel like an original work, deserving of awards recognition? Maybe, maybe not, I can’t decide! Either way, it’s won great acclaim since publication, and by all accounts is quite different from what Kingsolver has produced prior. I think it’ll be on the shortlist (but predict it won’t go all the way).
Three of the shortest novels in contention are Cursed Bread, Children of Paradise and Wandering Souls, all of which, for me, rank somewhere in upper-middle territory. None quite achieve 5 star status, but also, I could quite happily endorse their shortlisting. Cursed Bread was an atmospherically gothic romp, which I enjoyed hugely whilst in its slippery clutches. It hasn’t exactly taken root in the aftermath, however. The cinema-set Children of Paradise had that same dirtiness to it; overall, an assured debut, in which the titular Paradise almost felt like a character in its own right. However, at times, I wonder if the author cranked up the Nasty for the sake of it, with one or two plot developments, especially later on, feeling needlessly excessive. I’d be very interested to see what Camilla Grudova does next and this is a really effective calling card. Wandering Souls felt quite simplistic, with its characters perhaps serving as plot devices/political statements. I’d have liked something a bit more muscular, perhaps, but it opened my eyes to the horrors of history and made me angry!
Although I haven’t read Elizabeth McKenzie’s last novel, The Portable Veblen (itself shortlisted for the Women’s Prize in 2016), my mother was a huge fan. As such, I came to her sophomore effort eagerly. Alas, it didn’t work for me at all and I never managed to fall in with its rhythms. It takes real control and mastery to execute madcap - A M Homes springs to mind. McKenzie doesn’t measure up, and Dog ends up feeling like Homes-lite, without the bite and with the jagged edges softened to nothing. I found the whole thing tiresome and annoying and it was a chore to finish. The biggest disappointment as, done well, this genre is absolutely my cup of tea (Less would be a good recent example… even if it then went onto drop the ball with an unnecessary sequel).
I suspect Glory will make the shortlist, simply based on how it has performed in relation to various other prizes, Booker included. I have a complicated relationship with this one. I started out absolutely loving it, but at 500 pages (at least four times the length of Animal Farm), what started out as an exciting, punchy satire became a repetitive slog that outstayed its welcome like a drunken aunt at a dinner party. Arguably, it became more character-focussed in its second half, but I found myself missing the humour.
I’m A Fan is another complicated one. I admired it, more than I enjoyed it. Comprising vignettes and pithy observations about the modern world, it contains so many amazing, resonant individual sentences/paragraphs that, for me at least, just don’t coalesce into a satisfying whole. I was reminded of Weather and No One is Talking About This (shortlisted in 2020 and 2021); all three are what I call toilet reads/coffee table books. You pick them up, skim a few pages, marvel at the intelligence and insight… but when you sit down and consume them as novels, they somehow fail to satisfy and possess scant narrative hold. The unreliable narrator here was a nice touch, though, and, given the prize’s track record (see two previously shortlisted titles above), I am pretty sure this one will be announced come 26th April.
I’ve left my two favourites to last. In some ways, it’s hard to believe that Fire Rush and Trespasses are debut novels. Then again, how exciting that these are the standouts, and maybe it’s not actually all that surprising when you consider that both have such a raw authenticity, level of detail and sense of the personal. Each feels lived in, like a labour of love, evoking time and place and emotion more palpably than anything else on offer this year. I’d love to know how autographical these tales are, because they feel absolutely real, too specific and exact in their rendering not to be, at least partially, true.
I’ve made a start on The Bandit Queens (so far so frothy) and hope to finish before the shortlist is announced next week, thus bringing my total read up to 12.
I haven’t read Pod, Homesick, Black Butterflies or Memphis. Whether I do will hinge on which, if any, put in a showing come Wednesday’s grand unveiling!
I’m rubbish at predictions, but I’ll end with a should be shortlisted/will be shortlisted forecast:
Should be shortlisted - Fire Rush, Trespasses, Children of Paradise, Wandering Souls, Demon Copperhead and... oh, I've come around to The Marriage Plot… despite not being Hamnet)
Will be shortlisted - Fire Rush, Trespasses, I’m A Fan, Glory, Demon Copperhead, Wandering Souls.
Now to watch your video and see whether we’re on the same page!
Thank you so much for your detailed reactions and great to hear you've been engaging with the list so much! 📚 I still need to get to I'm a Fan and I'm wondering if I'll feel similarly mixed.
Demon for the win!!
👏💙
Pretty good choices. I am not really rooting for Glory to make the shortlist. It just feels like it’s been hanging around too long at this point, though obviously within the dates for the prize. I would love to see Trespasses on the shortlist. I loved it. I’m a Fan didn’t work at all for me. I sadly DNF’d it very early on. I still plan on reading Wandering Souls, The Marriage Portrait, The Bandit Queens (waiting on the audio from the library), Pod, and Stone Blind. I’ve sort of lost the drive on the last two, but I have them here and will get to them at some point. I’m curious how many debuts will make the shortlist!
Thanks! And I’m sure Bulawayo herself must be tiring of going to prize parties. 😅 Good point - there are so many debuts on the longlist I wonder if they’ll go for mostly seasoned authors for the shortlist. Hope you enjoy the rest you’re getting to. 📚
@@EricKarlAnderson Just finished Wandering Souls and I loved it. The author really brought the book home in the last quarter. I had been feeling a little detached or held at arms-length before that. But it’s a beautiful and quite wonderful book. Hope it makes the shortlist!
@@mradcaqbdb I'm so glad you felt that way. I found the ending very moving too.
I love predictions! I've just finished reading the Longlist and I loved three: Pod, Bandit Queens and Fire Rush, so I hope that they will make it. I think Demon Copperhead will be on it, and Trespasses (which I thoroughly disliked) and I'm a Fan (ditto). Can't wait for next week!
Thanks! So interesting which ones we differ on. 📚
@@EricKarlAnderson Yes, indeed! ☺
I hadnt heard about Mckenzie doing that, how bizarre!! I've predicted 5 the same as you, 1 different!
Do you mean about an author lashing out at readers online? It was Stringfellow I was talking about. You can watch a bookstagramer talking about her experience with the author here: th-cam.com/video/abGz0B_zfbY/w-d-xo.html
@@EricKarlAnderson yes I did, thank you for the link Eric!
I just finished Cursed Bread and along with Glory and the Dog of the North they are my least favorites so far. Trespasses and Memphis are in the middle for me. Homesick, Wandering Souls, and I'm A Fan have been my favorites so far. Like Anna, I'm also planning to read David Copperfield back to back with Demon Copperhead and I'm saving it for last! What woud you remommend I read next?
Interesting to know, thank you. How about reading Fire Rush next?
This might be a silly question but where do you watch the live reveal of the shortlist?
I’m not sure but I think it’ll be broadcast on the Women’s Prize’s social media channels in the morning.
I've read Demon, Bandit Queens, Pod, Trespasses, The Dog of the North, I'm a Fan, Homesick and Glory... I'm not sure about the shortlist from those I've read but Demon Copperhead to win! 😄 I want to read Cursed Bread- it sounds so good as a premise but I was intrigued by your assessment :)
Has the Women’s Prize ever awarded the prize to the same author more than once?
No, Kingsolver would be the first! (Or Maggie O’Farrell) 😯📚
I finished Trespasses on Tues and I just adored it. Little Davey esp 🥹
I have a physical copy of Demon Copperhead now so I look forward to re-reading it again.
Good to hear your predictions Eric 😊📚❤️
I know! Poor Davey.