Three debut novels will compete against books by two former winners for this year’s Women’s prize for fiction, on a shortlist described as “ambitious and hard-hitting” by the chair of judges Louise Minchin.
Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks (Cape)
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy (Bloomsbury)
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber)
Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (Duckworth)
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell (Tinder)
Pod by Laline Paull (Corsair)
The first-time novelists shortlisted for the prize are Jacqueline Crooks for Fire Rush, Louise Kennedy for Trespasses and Priscilla Morris for Black Butterflies.
They are joined by Barbara Kingsolver, who won the prize in 2010 for The Lacuna and is shortlisted this year for Demon Copperhead, and Maggie O’Farrell, who is shortlisted for The Marriage Portrait and who won the prize in 2020 for Hamnet.
The list is completed by Pod by Laline Paull, who was previously shortlisted for the prize in 2015 for her novel The Bees.
Minchin, who is a broadcaster and writer, said the books on the list were “ambitious and hard-hitting and imaginative, and they take you on an emotional journey that I feel moved by and inspired by”.
The prize, worth £30,000, is awarded for the best full-length novel of the year written by a woman and published in the UK.
Minchin said: “The diversity of thought and creativity of women writers at the moment is vast and exciting and inspiring. The list is eclectic and there are so many different types of stories and types of voices. For me, it took me to places that I wouldn’t necessarily have gone before.”
“I’ve learned an enormous amount as a reader - to be much more open in what I read,” she added.
Minchin’s fellow judges are the novelist Rachel Joyce, journalist, podcaster and writer Bella Mackie, novelist and short story writer Irenosen Okojie and Labour MP Tulip Siddiq.
Fire Rush is set in London, Bristol and Jamaica and follows Yamaye, who goes on a dramatic journey of transformation after her relationship ends. Colin Grant in his Guardian review said Crooks had “crafted a richly textured world”.
Kennedy’s Trespasses is her first novel, following the short story collection The End of the World is a Cul de Sac. Set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Trespasses is about a teacher who has an affair with an older lawyer. Mackie called it a “deftly woven novel, which will astonish you”.
Black Butterflies is set in Sarajevo in spring 1992, and follows an artist and teacher caught up in the siege of the city. It is inspired by real-life accounts of the longest siege in modern warfare. Siddiq described it as “a beautifully written book” about “love and loss, and where your home truly is”.
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell is a retelling of the story of Lucrezia, the third daughter of Cosimo de’ Medici, and is set in Florence in the 1500s. Minchin said it was an “ exquisite book” that takes readers to “a world that you won’t have lived in”.
Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead is a reimagining of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, focused on a boy who grows up in the poverty-stricken Appalachian mountains of Virginia. Elizabeth Lowry, reviewing for the Guardian, said the novel “feels in many ways like the book she [Kingsolver] was born to write”.
Pod is told through the eyes of Ea, a spinner dolphin, and is a story about an ocean world increasingly haunted by the cruelty and ignorance of humans. Okojie said the book “speaks to climate change and is also a wonderful celebration of family”.
The winner of this year’s prize will be announced on 14 June. The 2022 prize was won by Ruth Ozeki for The Book of Form and Emptiness.
The winner of the 2023 Women’s prize for fiction will be announced on 14 June. To explore all the titles on the shortlist visit guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
