The 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist has just been announced.
The shortlisted books are:
- The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
- A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride
- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
- Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- The Undertaking by Audrey Magee
I predicted three out of six correctly, but am quite shocked that Booker Prize winning The Luminaries didn’t make the cut. It is also disappointing that my two personal favourites, The Signature of All Things and Eleven Days, failed to make it through.
Overall it’s a strong list, but I expect A Girl is A Half-Formed Thing to take the winning spot.
11 replies on “The 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist”
Hey, we were both wrong! Americanah AND The Lowland made it through!
Jenny, At least we were wrong together!
Bailey’s Prize (or formerly Orange Prize) season always ensures a visit to your blog from me, even if I’ve been largely absent with any comments in um.. a year probably? Anyway, 3/6 is quite a good score! I haven’t read any of the nominated books (only reading books I already own at the momen), but many of these look really really good.
Iris, It’s great that you think of me in relation to the book prizes – thank you for visiting! I hope you enjoy any that you decide to read 🙂
You have always done a pretty good job of predicting these…I mean, usually you have read most or all of them. Most of these are on my list of ones I really want to read at some point.
Sandy, At least I’m consistent in guessing 3 or 4 right each year. I hope you enjoy any you decide to read.
I was shocked at The Luminaries too, I was certain it would be there!
Sam, Me too! It was one of the ones I was most certain of. Judging panels move in mysterious ways sometimes!
Can’t believe they didn’t include The Luminaries! I have only read Burial Rites, Americanah and The Goldfinch out of these six, but Burial Rites, at least, is a far inferior novel. I’m also in the middle of reading The Flamethrowers at the moment, which I think is fabulous, so am pre-emptively annoyed it was not included either, though I suppose it could still jump the shark…
Thanks for posting the shortlist announcement anyway Jackie, as I managed to miss it in the press! I agree that The Signature of All Things would certainly have been a better addition than some on this list (I haven’t read Eleven Days yet).
Laura, I agree with you on Burial Rites. It was a good read, but it wasn’t in the same league as many of the others that didn’t make the cut (Luminaries, Signature of All Things, Eleven Days and Flamethrowers were all of higher quality) Nevermind. We can’t win them all!
The Goldfinch and Americanah were hands down my two favorite books last year so I’m very glad they both made the cut! I’m about halfway through listening to the audio of Burial Rites and finding it rather slow and boring, though the idea is intriguing.