This coming Monday (March 4th) will see the announcement of the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist, and around the internet, I have seen quite a few videos and blog posts in which people are attempting to guess what will be on there! Usually there are 16 books on the longlist, and past winners of the prize have included Madeline Miller, Ali Smith, Kamila Shamsie, Barbara Kingsolver, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Rose Tremain, Andrea Levy, Zadie Smith and loads of other amazing women writers. The prize has had many iterations in terms of its name, with the naming rights having previously gone to the major sponsor (The Orange Prize, The Baileys Prize), but is now called The Women's Prize. It recognises a novel written originally in English by a writer identifying as female, and must have been published in the UK between April last year and March this year. (I think!) If you'd like to know more about the prize or see a full list of past winners, their
website is linked here.
Without too much more preamble, here are a few books that I think we'll be seeing or that I would like to see on Monday's list..
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Normal People by Sally Rooney
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
Transcription by Kate Atkinson
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
The Incendiaries by R O Kwon
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
Milkman by Anna Burns
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
House of Glass by Susan Fletcher
The Mere Wife by Maria Davhana Headley
What do you think? Are there any novels you think will be on the list that I haven't included here? Only a few days until we find out, and hopefully it will mean a chance to discover some amazing books I haven't even heard of yet.
