Shortlist 2023/24
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Rory Carroll: Killing Thatcher
The first major book to be written about the Brighton bombing, the most ambitious conspiracy since the Gunpowder Plot and which was intended to kill Margaret Thatcher and the British Cabinet. Rory Carroll blends true crime with political history, shedding light on a corner of British and Irish history most are familiar with, but few know.
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Jonathan Escoffery: If I Survive You
This dazzling collection of interconnected stories follows a Jamaican family in Miami; exploring racism, recession and rivalry, If I Survive You envisions a family pushed to breaking point. Escoffery’s work is filled with wit and astute social commentary and is at points gruesome and others hopeful. It is a masterfully crafted debut.
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Anna Funder: Wifedom
This is the story of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, a woman whose brilliance has influenced some of major literary works of the last century. Yet she is absent from history. Anna Funder brings this life to light and, in doing so, raises questions about the hidden work of women from the past as well as the present.
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Megan Nolan: Ordinary Human Failings
After the death of a young girl, a reclusive Irish family is brought under scrutiny by the tabloid. This forces Carmel to confront her family’s secrets which have been kept hidden for generations. Nolan’s second novel is daring and beautiful and establishes her as a unique voice of contemporary fiction.
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John Niven: O Brother
John Niven’s memoir is a tender, heart-breaking and hilarious story which ranges from a working-class childhood, raves in the 90s and a family suicide. Tracing the life of John Niven’s younger brother, Gary, who committed suicide after a life plagued with drugs, bankruptcy and prison, O Brother explores the feelings of guilt and regret which haunt those left behind after suicide.
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Kathryn Scanlan: Kick the Latch
Built upon interviews with a horse trainer, Scanlan crafts a concise work of fiction which vividly chronicles the life of Sonia and highlights how seemingly ordinary people can live extraordinary lives. Kick the Latch is a fast-paced, experimental novel which expertly captures Sonia’s idiosyncrasies and flair as a storyteller.
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Tanya Tagaq: Split Tooth
A mix of fiction, memoir, poetry and Inuit folklore, Split Tooth is a story about a young Inuk girl who grows up in an Arctic town during the 1970s and who must navigate this strange and gritty world. This debut is filled with haunting and exhilarating prose and is accompanied by beautiful illustrations.
Past Shortlists
2022
Constructing a Nervous System
Margo Jefferson
Pantheon Books
Case Study
Graeme Macrae Burnet
Saraband
Aftermath
Preti Taneja
And Other Stories
About a Son
David Whitehouse
Orion Publishing
Free: Coming of Age at the End of History
Lea Ypi
Penguin Books
2021
A Ghost in the Throat
Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Tramp Press
A Little Devil in America
Hanif Abdurraqib
Penguin Press
Come Join Our Disease
Sam Byers
Faber
Luckenbooth
Jenni Fagan
William Heinemann
Mrs Death Misses Death
Salena Godden
Canongate
Sea State
Tabitha Lasley
HarperCollins
2020
Notes Made While Falling
Jenn Ashworth
Goldsmiths Press
Rainbow Milk
Paul Mendez
Little, Brown Book Group
Motherwell
Deborah Orr
Orion Publishing Group
This Is Not Propaganda
Peter Pomerantsev
Faber & Faber
My Name Is Why
Lemn Sissay
Canongate Books
Three Women
Lisa Taddeo
Bloomsbury Publishing
2019
For the Good Times
David Keenan
Faber
Girl, Woman, Other
Bernardine Evaristo
Hamish Hamilton
Heads of the Colored People
Nafissa Thompson-Spires
Chatto & Windus
Lanny
Max Porter
Faber
The Silence of the Girls
Pat Barker
Penguin
This Brutal House
Niven Govinden
Dialogue
2018
Census
Jesse Ball
Granta Books
H(a)ppy
Nicola Barker
William Heinemann
In Our Mad and Furious City
Guy Gunaratne
Tinder Press
Crudo
Olivia Laing
Pan Macmillan/Picador
The Cost of Living
Deborah Levy
Hamish Hamilton
I’ll be Gone in the Dark
Michelle McNamara
Faber & Faber
2017
Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe
Kapka Kassabova
Granta Books
This is Memorial Device
David Keenan
Faber & Faber
The Long Drop
Denise Mina
Harvill Secker
This is the Place to Be
Lara Pawson
CB Editions
First Love
Gwendoline Riley
Granta Books
Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile
Adelle Stripe
Wrecking Ball Press
2016
A Woman on the Edge of Time
Jeremy Gavron
Scribe
The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
Olivia Laing
Canongate
Eileen
Ottessa Moshfegh
Jonathan Cape
Anatomy of a Soldier
Harry Parker
Faber and Faber
All That Man Is
David Szalay
Jonathan Cape
And the Sun Shines Now: How Hillsborough and the Premier League Changed Britain
Adrian Tempany
Faber and Faber
2015
In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile
Dan Davies
Quercus
Midland
Honor Gavin
Penned in the Margins
Noon Tide Toll
Romesh Gunesekera
Granta Books
Original Rockers
Richard King
Faber & Faber
Nothing is True and Everything is Possible
Peter Pomerantsev
Faber & Faber
2014
The Valley
Richard Benson
Bloomsbury
The Kills
Richard House
Picador
The Wake
Paul Kingsnorth
Unbound
The Trip to Echo Spring
Olivia Laing
Canongate
American Interior
Gruff Rhys
Hamish Hamilton
The Free
Willy Vlautin
Faber & Faber
2013
How I Killed Margaret Thatcher
Anthony Cartwright
Tindal Street Press
The Footballer Who Could Fly
Duncan Hamilton
Century
People Who Eat Darkness
Richard Lloyd Parry
Jonathan Cape
Pig Iron
Benjamin Myers
Blue Moose Books
Myra, Beyond Saddleworth
Jean Rafferty
Wild Wolf Publishing
