By Harry Banham, Florrie Hulbert, and Grace Briggs-Jones
There have been so many literary prizes this year and lots of worthy winners and runners-up. To round off the year, let’s take a look at some of the ones you may have missed!
The Writers’ Prize 2024
Originally named the Rathbones Folio Prize, this is an award nominated and judged solely by writers. The award can be granted to any international author whose texts are written in the English language, and accepts works of any kind of literature, no matter the form.
Poetry Winner: The Home Child is inspired by the life of Liz Berry’s great aunt, and focuses on the complexities that come from being thrown into unfamiliar and unknown environments. This novel tells the story of a child’s journey far from home, following twelve-year-old Eliza Showell as she boards a ship to Novia Scotia, never to return to her home country.
Fiction Winner: Enright’s novel, The Wren The Wren, focuses on Nell, a woman in the prime of her life, leaving home and seeking adventure. Family relationships and the difficulties of these are explored throughout, as Nell leaves her mother Carmel behind, both women now alone with the overwhelming memories of Nell’s famous father and the impact he has had on both her and her mother.
Non-Fiction Winner: Thunderclap tells the story of a father-daughter relationship, and how this develops and grows through a shared love of art and painting. Laura Cumming writes this colourful, vivid memoir connecting her busy career as an art critic with the world of her father’s life as a painter, and the painters integral to the Dutch Golden Age.
Waterstones Book of the Year 2024
This annual award, established in 2012, is presented to a book published in the previous twelve months. The booksellers of Waterstones nominate and ultimately vote to determine the winners and finalists for the prize. In previous years the award has been split into Book, Author, and Children’s Book of the Year, but this year there are only two winners: Book and Children’s Book of the Year. Previous winners include John Williams’ Stoner, Coralie Bickford-Smith’s The Fox and the Star, and author Bonnie Garmus.
Taking Book of the Year is Butter by Asako Yuzki, an utterly unique novel that has become a bestselling phenomenon with the help of Waterstones’ booksellers and their passionate recommendations. Diving deep into sexism and misogyny in contemporary Japan, this novel is loosely based on the real-life Konkatsu Killer. Bea Carvalho, Head of Books, called Butter “the ultimate word of mouth sensation [and] a deliciously rich treat of a novel which quickly established itself as the most talked about book of the year.” Definitely one for those who enjoy tense mystery with a sprinkle of social commentary and a dash of media obsession with true crime – a perfect recipe.
Winning Children’s Book of the Year is a timeless animal story that has stolen the hearts of booksellers since its publication. I Am Rebel by Ross Montgomery is the moving yet exciting tale of man’s best friend and how that dog follows his master to war. Bea Carvalho says “I am Rebel stands out as the perfect book to press into the hands of children and the adults who care for them…showcasing the very best in children’s storytelling.” This book would make a great Christmas gift for children, with unforgettable animal characters navigating the senselessness of conflict with courage, heart, and humour.
The International Booker Prize 2024
Earlier this year we covered the International Booker Prize after the longlist was announced. We looked at six of the long listed books: Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior, The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone, The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov, Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener, What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma, and White Nights by Urszula Honek. However, since then, the eventual winner has been announced. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck and translated by Michael Hoffman was announced as the winner on 21 May. As the year comes to a close, let’s give Kairos the attention it deserves.
Originally written in German, Kairos follows a relationship between a young woman and an older man in 1980s East Berlin. As their affair grows more destructive, it becomes an allegory for the decaying political system they live under. Their private story becomes a wider exploration of hope, disappointment, and freedom.
Jenny Erpenbeck was previously nominated for the prize in 2018 and has now become the first ever German writer to win. Michael Hoffman, a poet in his own right, is the first male translator to win. They will evenly split the £50,000 prize money, with each receiving equal recognition.