On International Women's Day the 2022 Women's Prize longlist has been announced! The annual literary award celebrating women writers has previously recognised the talents of so many gifted writers, including these past winners:
Susanna Clarke - Piranesi (2021)Maggie O'Farrell - Hamnet (2020)Tayari Jones - An American Marriage (2019)Lionel Shriver - We Need to Talk About Kevin (2005)Andrea Levy - Small Island (2004)On 8 March 2022, the longlist for this year's Women's Prize was revealed with 16 nominees. I have a handful of these books to read, and a couple of others on reserve from my local library. I look forward to exploring these titles.
The 2022 longlist is as follows:
Lisa Allen-Agnostini - The Bread the Devil Knead Port of Spain boutique manager Althea Lopez is about to turn 40 and from outward appearances she seems fashionable and independent. But this is masking the domestic violence she faces at home. When she witnesses a woman murdered by her partner, she realises she needs to make a change or that could be her fate. Allen-Agnostini is a writer, editor and stand-up comedian from Trinidad and Tobago. This is her first novel for adults.
Lulu Allison - Salt Lick
Britain's food production has moved overseas and the rural economy has collapsed. Towns and villages are abandoned as residents move to larger cities. Set in a near-future UK, this novel is not dystopian but perhaps speculative. Lulu Allison is a British visual artist. Her first novel was
Twice the Speed of Dark. I am intrigued by this novel and will try and locate a copy.
Kirsty Capes - Careless
A debut novel by Kirsty Capes who's recently completed her PhD under the supervision of author Bernadine Evaristo. In this coming-of-age story, fifteen-year-old Bess has just discovered she is pregnant to a nineteen-year-old. She is in foster care, with a patchy support system. The novel explores issues of teen pregnancy, out of home care, generational trauma and the importance of friendship.
Catherine Chidgey - Remote Sympathy
Set during the Holocaust, Frau Greta Hahn leaves Munich to move to Buchenwald where her husband, SS Sturmbannfuhrer Dietrich Hahn, has taken up a position as the prison camp's administrator. Doctor Weber, an inventor. is married to Anna, a Jewish woman living in Frankfurt. Weber is transferred to the camp where he has to treat Frau Hahn. Catherine Chidgey is a writer from New Zealand. Her previous novels include
The Transformation (2003) and
The Wish Child (2016).
Miranda Cowley Heller - The Paper Palace
Elle is a fifty-year-old married mother of three. At her family's summer home in Cape Cod, The Paper Palace, she wakes early and goes for a swim, The night before she and her childhood love Jonas snuck outside to have sex while their unknowing spouses chatted away. Will she stay with her husband or risk it all for Jonas? This is American author Heller's debut novel. (Update:
Read Review)
Rachel Elliott - Flamingo
Two families live side-by-side: Sherry and Leslie with their two daughters; Eve with her son Daniel. They spend a lot of time together, friends as well as neighbours. Eventually Eve and Daniel move away and the relationship ends. Then one day an adult Daniel shows up at Sherry's door. Elliott's previous novel
Whispers Through A Megaphone (2015) was previously long listed for the Women's Prize.
Louise Erdich - The Sentence
In Minneapolis, a small independent bookstore is haunted by Flora, the store's most annoying customer. Tookie attempts to solve the mystery of the haunting during a year of grief. Set from November 2019 to November 2020, the novel spans world events like the pandemic and the death of George Floyd. Erdrich won the Pulitzer Prize for her previous novel,
The Night Watchman. The Sentence has been recommended to me by friends and I am looking forward to reading it.
Violet Kupersmith - Build Your House Around My Body
In 1986 a young Vietnamese girl goes missing. 25 years later a Vietnamese-American women disappears from her home in Saigon. Both women will have their revenge. Spanning 50 years of Vietnamese history, this novel shows how the fates of these women are interlinked. This is Kupersmith's first novel. She has previously published a short story collection,
The Frangipani Hotel.
Meg Mason - Sorrow and Bliss
Martha believes there is something wrong with her. Her husband Patrick thinks she is fine, she just needs to keep going, but she feels things are falling apart. This is a character-driven story about grappling with mental illness and how it impacts families and friends. New Zealander Mason is the author of
Say it Again in a Nice Voice and
You Be Mother. She now lives in Sydney.
Charlotte Mendelson - The Exhibitionist
Famous artist Ray Hanrahan is preparing for an exhibition of his art. His three children gather for a weekend prior to the exhibition. But what of his long-suffering wife, herself an artist. She has always put her husband and children first and is now seeking to change focus. This is a story of a dysfunctional family, personal freedom, art and sacrifice. British novelist Mendelson is the author of various titles including
Daughters of Jerusalem, Almost English and
When We Were Bad. I like the sound of this novel and will try and track it down.
Ruth Ozeki - The Book of Form and Emptiness
When Benny's father dies, the teenager begins to hear voices he cannot fully understand. He tries to ignore them, but they follow him around. So he seeks refuge in the public library where the books teach him to listen to the things that matter. American author Ozeki was previously shortlisted for the Booker Prize for her novel
A Tale for the Time Being.
Leone Ross - This One Sky Day
On the archipelago of Popisho people are born with a magical power that manifests before they reach adulthood. One person can season food with his hands, another can diagnose disease by touch, each person is different. This imaginative novel of magical realism takes readers to a strange land where important subjects - like love, grief, sexism, infidelity, colonialism and more - can be explored. British author Ross is best known for her previous novels
All the Blood is Red and
Orange Laughter.
Elif Shafak - The Island of Missing Trees
Two teens meet in Cyprus in 1974 a a tavern to listen to music, eat good food, and forget about the world outside. One is Greek, the other Turkish, so they must love in secret. A fig tree grows through a cavity in the tavern roof. Decades later in London, A sixteen year old girl has never visited her parents' homeland but she has a fig tree growing in her back yard. Greece is near the top of my travel wish list and I love the idea of a novel about homelands, so this has been added to my list. Shafak was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for her novel
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.
Maggie Shipstead - Great Circle In prohibition era Montana, teenage Marian drops out of school and finds a patron who will support her desire to become a pilot. As a daredevil aviatrix, she circumnavigates the world and flies over the poles. A century later, actress Hadley Baxter is set to play Marian in a biopic and becomes immersed in the pilot's disappearance in Antarctica. Shipstead is the author of
Astonish Me and
Seating Arrangements. I have had this book on my 'To Be Read' pile since it was
Longlisted for the Booker Prize last year.
Dawnie Walton - The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
This is the story of an iconic interracial rock duo and their dramatic rise and fall. Opal is a fiercely independent Afro-punk woman from Detroit. Nev is a British singer/songwriter. Together they make music in 1970s New York. Decades later they consider a reunion and a music journalist seeks to curate an oral history of the pair. This is American author Walton's debut novel.
Morowa Yejide - Creatures of Passage
In Washington DC, Nephthys drives a haunted car, battles with alcoholism and mourns the loss of her twin brother Osiris. Her estranged nephew Dash is drawn to the river where Osiris died, and has concversations with someone he calls 'River Man'. This is a story of grief, ghosts, and family ties. Yejide is the author of
Time of the Locus. Creatures of Passage is her second novel.
I have not read any of these titles yet, and haven't heard of many. I have copies of Great Circle and The Sentence on my bedside table ready to read. I am keen to track down the works by Elif Shafak and Charlotte Mendelson, and potentially Allen-Agnostini.
I was surprised that
Sarah Winman's Still Life, Rachel Cusk's
Second Place and Nadifa Mohamed's
The Fortune Men did not make the cut. I had also hoped that two Australian authors would have made the list - Hannah Kent for
Devotion and Emily Maguire for
Love Objects. It was nice to see four debut authors gain exposure for their work by these nominations.
If I had to pick a shortlist, I would bet on Erdrich, Shafak, Ross, and Shipstead to be among those listed. The shortlist will be announced on 27 April 2022 and the winner will be revealed on 15 June 2022. Happy reading!
