Six spellbinding books make up the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist capturing between their pages the enormous breadth of the human experience.
Many of the books depict characters who are navigating seismic changes in their identity, undergoing a process of self-reckoning and self-acceptance, with several also dealing with the inheritance of trauma and the resilience of women in overcoming the weight of the past. Half of the books in this year’s fiction shortlist also explore the migrant experience through different lenses, offering deeply moving, yet distinct, explorations of race, identity and family, of the West’s false promise and the magnetism of home. The shortlist encompasses stories that both focus on intimate family relationships, as well as those that convey a sweep of history, always with an eye on the particularity of women’s experience, whether in the home or in the context of war and political upheaval.
This year’s shortlist features six brilliant, thought-provoking and spellbinding 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.
Monical Ali, Chair of Judges
The full list in alphabetical order by author surname is:
- The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright, published by Jonathan Cape
- Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan, published by Viking
- Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville, published by Canongate Books
- Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad, published by Jonathan Cape
- Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy, published by Faber & Faber
- River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure, published by Duckworth
