Shortlist for 2024 Prize announced!
1st May, 2024
The judges have announced the shortlist for the 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The six books going forward for the £25,000 award are:
THE NEW LIFE by Tom Crewe (Chatto & Windus)
HUNGRY GHOSTS by Kevin Jared Hosein (Bloomsbury)
MY FATHER’S HOUSE by Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker)
IN THE UPPER COUNTRY by Kai Thomas (Viking Canada/John Murray)
ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER by Rose Tremain (Chatto & Windus)
THE HOUSE OF DOORS by Tan Twan Eng (Canongate)
The judges said:
‘The Walter Scott Prize judging criteria – originality, innovation, ambition, durability and of course quality of writing – are beautifully showcased in our 2024 shortlist. In addition, we have six novels as diverse in their subject-matter as in style of writing: an attempted sexual revolution in nineteenth century London; dangerously entwined lives in 1940s Trinidad; gripping tensions in Nazi-occupied Rome; a gentle 1960s home-counties heartbreaker; stories within stories from the terminus of the Underground Railroad; and love, betrayal and scandal in the Straits Settlements of Penang. At the heart of each novel lies a deep understanding of humanity in all its quirky strengths and weaknesses, with each of the WSP 2024 shortlisted authors having something new to say and a new way of saying it.’
The 2024 judging panel comprises Katie Grant (chair), James Holloway, Elizabeth Laird, James Naughtie, Kirsty Wark and Saira Shah. Books must have been written in English, set more than 60 years ago, and published during 2023 in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth. Shortlisted authors this year are from England, Ireland, Trinidad, Canada and Malaysia.
The winner will be announced at a special public event with shortlisters at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose on Thursday 13th June 2024, which also honours the winners of the prize’s counterpart for young writers, the Young Walter Scott Prize. Tickets are now on sale for the event here – book now!
You can find out more about each book on the shortlist here. Do follow us on social media and join the conversation about these fantastic novels!