Seven-strong shortlist announced for 2023 Walter Scott Prize
4th April, 2023
The judges of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction have announced a shortlist of seven books for the 2023 prize. The shortlist is:
THESE DAYS Lucy Caldwell (Faber)
THE GEOMETER LOBACHEVSKY Adrian Duncan (Tuskar Rock Press)
ACT OF OBLIVION Robert Harris (Hutchinson Heinemann)
THE CHOSEN Elizabeth Lowry (Riverrun)
THE SUN WALKS DOWN Fiona McFarlane (Allen & Unwin Australia)
ANCESTRY Simon Mawer (Little, Brown)
I AM NOT YOUR EVE Devika Ponnambalam (Bluemoose)
The judges said:
‘Cat and mouse with 17th Century regicides. Love in the Belfast blitz. The death of Emma Hardy. A lost boy (and so much else) in southern Australia. A Soviet exile in Ireland. A dig into personal ancestry. The voice of a voiceless muse. Seven very different stories with very different approaches have reached the shortlist for this year’s Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. And as with the best historical novels, each book offers the reader more than the story.
‘This year we explore martyrdom, self-knowledge, remorse, exile, art’s human price, complex relationships under an unsettling sun and the impossibility of knowing exactly who we are. As required by the prize criteria, all the novels on our 2023 shortlist are set sixty years or more in the past, but how vividly they speak to the present. We hope you’ll read, enjoy and watch out for the winner.’
The prize judging panel comprises Katie Grant (Chair), Elizabeth Buccleuch, James Holloway, Elizabeth Laird, James Naughtie, Kirsty Wark and, for 2023, award-winning documentary maker, journalist and writer Saira Shah. More details on our judges can be found here.
The winner will be announced at a special series of events in the Scottish Borders as part of the Borders Book Festival, on 15th and 16th June 2023. Full details and tickets for the events will become available at the end of April.
For more on each of the seven books please go to our Shortlist page – and follow us on social media for exclusive interviews and more news as it happens.