Women's Prize
for Fiction 2023
for Fiction 2023
Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
Discover more about this year's prize.Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023
'An exposé of modern America, its opioid crisis and the detrimental treatment of deprived and maligned communities, Demon Copperhead tackles universal themes – from addiction and poverty, to family, love, and the power of friendship and art – it packs a triumphant emotional punch, and is a novel that will withstand the test of time.' - Louise Minchin, 2023 Chair of Judges.
The 2023 shortlist
Fire Rush
Trespasses
Demon Copperhead
Black Butterflies
The Marriage Portrait
Pod
In their own words... the shortlisted authors tell us about their stories
Jacqueline Crooks on
Fire Rush
Your novel in one sentence...
The quest of a woman within the male-dominated dub-reggae underworld to use supra-watt dub music power to find sites of safety for her mind and body.
What inspired you to write your shortlisted book?
The dub reggae sound revolution of the 1970s and 1980s was an important moment in time, and the culture of that world continues to reverberate, impacting on the fashion, music, and language of today. It was a hidden subterranean world and it struck me that many people didn't know of its existence. I wanted to explore through writing the politics of invisibility and was compelled to write about this hidden world, to recreate it from memory and imagination.
Louise Kennedy on
Trespasses
Your novel in one sentence...
Trespasses is a star-crossed love story set in a small town near Belfast in 1975, at the height of the time known as The Troubles.
What inspired you to write your shortlisted book?
*A visit to the Ulster Museum in 2015 made me think about how art can express the unspeakable in a place where language is fraught. I made a ghost of The Troubles in my head and imagined a life for him.
Barbara Kingsolver on
Demon Copperhead
Your novel in one sentence...
This is one boy's journey of survival, but it's also the story of the impoverished, generationally exploited, heartbreakingly beautiful place where I live, America's southern Appalachian mountains.
What inspired you to write your shortlisted book?
If my culture and people show up at all in books, movies, or television, we're portrayed as ignorant, hillbillies. I wanted to represent my home with the respect and compassion it deserves.
Priscilla Morris on
Black Butterflies
Your novel in one sentence...
The siege of Sarajevo (1992-96) as seen through the eyes of Zora, a resilient artist and teacher who sends her family to safety in England before being trapped in her blockaded hometown for ten months.
What inspired you to write your shortlisted book?
Black Butterflies is my personal response to the war that devastated my mother's hometown of Sarajevo. The desire to understand the war, a love for the place where I'd spent childhood summers, and family stories of resilience, loss and survival inspired me. In particular, I was inspired by the stories of my great-uncle's loss of his art studio during the war. The image that was the catalyst for the writing of the novel was that of flames billowing through the windows of the Bosnian National Library, where my great-uncle had his studio. The charred pages of books floated over Sarajevo for days afterwards and people called them 'black butterflies'.
Maggie O’Farrell on
The Marriage Portrait
Your novel in one sentence...
The Marriage Portrait is the story of Lucrezia, a young Duchess in sixteenth-century Ferrara, who realises that her husband is planning to murder her.
What inspired you to write your shortlisted book?
I had the idea just before lockdown began, at the tailend of winter in 2020. I had been rereading Robert Browning's dramatic monologues and I was idly wondering to myself one day whether Browning had based his most famous, My Last Duchess, on real events. I started researching the source of his inspiration and, within minutes, I was staring at a portrait of a young girl, married off at 15, with auburn hair and a rather frightened gaze. I knew instantly that I would write a novel about her.
Laline Paull on
Pod
Your novel in one sentence...
A science-backed dolphin epic of migration, love, loss, family and survival – with many characters of other species all just trying to stay alive in a changing ocean.
What inspired you to write your shortlisted book?
Stupid naive tourist contact swimming with wild dolphins, then realising my blunder and starting to research why one species had driven out another (answer: an oil spill up the coast).
The 2023 longlist
Glory
Children of Paradise
Stone Blind
Cursed Bread
The Dog of the North
I'm a Fan
Wandering Souls
The Bandit Queens
Memphis
Homesick
Not yet available in audio
Meet the judges
Louise Minchin - Chair
Rachel Joyce
Bella Mackie
Irenosen Okojie
Tulip Siddiq
Make a discovery...
Introducing Sui Annukka
Following lead character Surya as she visits London from Sri Lanka, we discover she is not only recovering from tragedy but is also fixated on a long-buried, shameful episode from her past. Exploring themes of grief, guilt, loss and hope The Mother Sun is released on 25 May.
More winners
Previous winners of the Women's Prize for Fiction, launched in 1996.-
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Piranesi
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Release date: 15-09-20
- Language: English
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£12.99 or free with trial. Auto-renews at £8.99/month after trial. See eligibility.
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An American Marriage (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden, Eisa Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall2,295
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Performance2,004
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Story1,998
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career....
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Great performances...
- By Snowbound on 10-08-18
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An American Marriage (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden, Eisa Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Release date: 06-02-18
- Language: English
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Home Fire
- By: Kamila Shamsie
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall990
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Performance893
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Story892
Isma is free. After years spent raising her twin siblings in the wake of their mother's death, she is finally studying in America, resuming a dream long deferred....
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An unexpectedly compelling read
- By Jill SG on 31-01-19
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Home Fire
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Release date: 21-12-17
- Language: English
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The Glorious Heresies
- 'A big, brassy, sexy beast of a book' IRISH TIMES
- By: Lisa McInerney
- Narrated by: Shelley Atkinson
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall480
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Performance421
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Story417
WINNER OF THE BAILEYS' WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016 WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOT PRIZE 2016 LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2016 LONGLISTED FOR THE THEAKSTONS OLD PECULIAR CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 'The Glorious Heresies heralds the arrival of a glorious, foul-mouthed, fizzing new talent'...
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A fantastic listen
- By ros on 05-06-16
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The Glorious Heresies
- 'A big, brassy, sexy beast of a book' IRISH TIMES
- Narrated by: Shelley Atkinson
- Series: Ryan Cusack, Book 1
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Release date: 26-05-16
- Language: English
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How to Be Both
- By: Ali Smith
- Narrated by: Katie Leung
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall44
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Performance33
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Story33
Brought to you by Penguin. Passionate, compassionate, vitally inventive and scrupulously playful, Ali Smith's novels are like nothing else. How to Be Both is a novel all about art's versatility. Borrowing from painting's fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it's a...
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Evocative and poetic
- By Di on 08-06-25
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How to Be Both
- Narrated by: Katie Leung
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Release date: 11-02-21
- Language: English
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A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing
- By: Eimear McBride
- Narrated by: Eimear McBride
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall322
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Performance286
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Story286
A Girl is a Half-formed Thing tells the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother, and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumour. It is a shocking and intimate insight into the thoughts, feelings and chaotic sexuality of a vulnerable and isolated protagonist.
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Not an easy listen, but a powerful story
- By Benry on 01-12-18
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A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing
- Narrated by: Eimear McBride
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Release date: 04-08-14
- Language: English
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£18.99 or free with trial. Auto-renews at £8.99/month after trial. See eligibility.
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May We Be Forgiven
- By: A. M. Homes
- Narrated by: Nathan Osgood
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall253
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Performance217
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Story216
Harold Silver, a Richard Nixon Scholar, has spent a lifetime watching his younger, taller and more successful brother, George....
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Brilliant
- By P Murray on 17-05-13
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May We Be Forgiven
- Narrated by: Nathan Osgood
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Release date: 22-10-12
- Language: English
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The Lacuna
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall337
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Performance231
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Story233
Born in the US and reared in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd is a liability to his social-climbing mother, Salome....
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Well, I like her voice!
- By patashnik on 28-09-10
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The Lacuna
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins
- Release date: 01-07-10
- Language: English
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£16.99 or free with trial. Auto-renews at £8.99/month after trial. See eligibility.
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Home
- By: Marilynne Robinson
- Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall46
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Performance43
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Story43
WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2009 AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK Jack Boughton - prodigal son - has been gone twenty years. He returns home seeking refuge and to make peace with the past. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold down a job, Jack is perpetually at odds with...
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Brilliant storytelling
- By Mrs. S. White on 11-05-21
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Home
- Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Release date: 29-09-20
- Language: English
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£12.99 or free with trial. Auto-renews at £8.99/month after trial. See eligibility.
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The Road Home
- By: Rose Tremain
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall516
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Performance420
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Story419
London holds the alluring possibilities of friendship, sex, money, and a new career. But, more than this, the sense of belonging....
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Great Narration, Good Story
- By Yogita on 13-10-08
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The Road Home
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Release date: 19-08-08
- Language: English
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£15.99 or free with trial. Auto-renews at £8.99/month after trial. See eligibility.
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Half of a Yellow Sun
- By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Zainab Jah
- Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall1,640
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Performance1,465
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Story1,466
**DREAM COUNT, the searing new bestselling novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is out now!** THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION ‘WINNER OF WINNERS’ One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World' ‘A literary masterpiece’ DAILY MAIL ‘An immense achievement’ OBSERVER In 1960s Nigeria...
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In my living memory
- By julie on 19-10-17
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Half of a Yellow Sun
- Narrated by: Zainab Jah
- Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins
- Release date: 28-09-17
- Language: English
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Small Island
- By: Andrea Levy
- Narrated by: Andrea Levy
- Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall1,195
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Performance1,067
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Story1,062
Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction, as well as many other awards, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread. Now a major BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris, its enduring appeal will captivate fans of Maya...
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A breath taking saga.
- By Dolly on 01-10-15
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Small Island
- Narrated by: Andrea Levy
- Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
- Release date: 07-05-15
- Language: English
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Bel Canto
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall318
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Performance292
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Story291
Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award Winner of the Orange Prize National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century ""Bel Canto is its own universe. A marvel of a book."" —Washington Post Book World New York Times bestselling...
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Incredible. The story, the performance, the characters...
- By Rose on 10-01-21
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Bel Canto
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Release date: 11-08-04
- Language: English
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The Idea of Perfection
- By: Kate Grenville
- Narrated by: Odette Joannidis
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall30
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Performance28
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Story28
Set in the eccentric backwater of Karakarook (pop. 1,374), New South Wales, this is the story of Douglas Cheeseman, a shy and clumsy engineer with jug-ears who meets Harley Savage....
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My idea of perfection
- By Dev B on 16-12-23
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The Idea of Perfection
- Narrated by: Odette Joannidis
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Release date: 24-11-17
- Language: English
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