March 10, 2022 · 7:57 pm
The Ladies’s Prize for Fiction longlist for 2022 was introduced on Tuesday. The 16 titles are:
The Bread the Satan Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini
Salt Lick by Lulu Allison
Careless by Kirsty Capes
Distant Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
Flamingo by Rachel Elliott
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Construct Your Home Round My Physique by Violet Kupersmith
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson
The Ebook of Kind and Vacancy by Ruth Ozeki
This One Sky Day by Leone Ross
The Island of Lacking Bushes by Elif Shafak
Nice Circle by Maggie Shipstead
The Ultimate Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé
I’m happy to see ‘Nice Circle’ by Maggie Shipstead and ‘Sorrow and Bliss’ by Meg Mason on the longlist as these had been amongst my favorite books of 2021. Some have expressed shock that titles similar to Stunning World, The place Are You by Sally Rooney, The Fell by Sarah Moss and To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara didn’t make the reduce. Nonetheless, whereas they’re excellent novels, I don’t suppose they’re the very best work up to now by these authors, so it’s good to see extra room for others this yr as an alternative.
I’ve learn ‘The Paper Palace’ by Miranda Cowley Heller however haven’t reviewed it – it’s a very robust debut, and it doesn’t shock me to be taught that Heller was Head of Drama Collection at HBO for a decade, because the novel has the texture of a status TV drama in its emotional dissection of an affair throughout a summer time in Cape Cod. I even have a duplicate of ‘The Ebook of Kind and Vacancy’ by Ruth Ozeki which I’m trying ahead to studying quickly, having loved all of her earlier novels.
Whereas final yr’s longlist was dominated by well-known authors, there are a number of on this yr’s record who’re new to me. One of many 5 debut novels on the record I’m significantly intrigued by is ‘Careless’ by Kirsty Capes, a coming-of-age story which pulls on the writer’s private experiences of the care system. I’ve additionally seen a lot of constructive evaluations for ‘The Exhibitionist’ by Charlotte Mendelson which is concerning the household of an artist making ready for his newest exhibition.
Which longlisted books have you ever learn and which of them are you eager to learn?
