Shortlist for 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction announced

The winner will be announced on June 12 and will receive a prize of £30,000 (approximately ₹31.5 lakh), along with a bronze statuette known as “Bessie.”

The prize, established in 1996, is awarded annually to a female author of the best full-length novel written in English. Author Kit de Waal chaired the judging panel, which included novelist Diana Evans, journalist and author Bryony Gordon, magazine editor Deborah Joseph, and musician Amelia Warner.

“Our selection celebrates rich, multi-layered narratives that will surprise, move, and delight the reader,” said de Waal. “What is surprising and refreshing is to see so much humour, nuance, and lightness employed by these novelists to shed light on challenging concepts.”

The six shortlisted novels are:

📌Good Girl by Aria Aber: A debut novel set in Berlin, Good Girl follows Nila, a young woman navigating questions of identity while hiding a significant secret from her past.

📌 All Fours by Miranda July:  July’s second nomination for the Prize is a humorous and introspective novel about a 45-year-old artist who sets off on a road trip in search of transformation.

📌 The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji: A multigenerational debut novel set between 1940 and 2000, The Persians explores the lives of five Iranian women during and after the country’s political upheavals.

📌 Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout: Strout’s latest novel is a murder mystery that features recurring characters from her earlier work. It examines new and complicated friendships formed later in life.

📌 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden: A novel of secrecy and longing, The Safekeep centers on a woman whose quiet life is upended by her brother’s girlfriend, sparking a complex emotional shift.

📌 Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis: Set in Iraq, Younis’s debut follows a woman assigned to rehabilitate women affiliated with ISIS. The novel portrays an unexpected friendship and explores political and emotional recovery with nuance and wit.

Four of the six shortlisted authors—Aber, Mahloudji, van der Wouden, and Younis—are debut novelists. Miranda July returns to the shortlist for the second time. Elizabeth Strout has been previously longlisted and was shortlisted in 2000.

(The writer is an intern with indianexpress.com)