Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction

Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction

The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, formerly known as the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, celebrates the excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing and is open to any woman writing in English, whatever her nationality. 

The shortlisted books for 2016 were: 

Ruby. Cynthia Bond

Ruby Bell has escaped a small Texas town called Liberty for the bright lights of New York City, in the 1950s. When she receives a message that she is needed back at home, Ruby returns, and is once again drawn into a dark world of black magic. But she finds salvation through friendship and love with Ephram Jenkins, her childhood friend. A debut novel.

The Green Road. Anne Enright

Irish matriarch Rosaleen Madigan has four adult children, all living in various parts of the world. When their mother announces that she is selling the family home in the west of Ireland, all four children return for one last Christmas. Alternating narratives cover the individual lives of the siblings, covering a period of some 25 years, culminating in all five family members getting together after many years.

The Glorious Heresies. Lisa McInerney (Winner)

Set in the underbelly of contemporary Cork, after the economic down-turn. The main character is fifteen-year-old Ryan, who is a drug dealer, fearful that he is going to become an alcoholic like his father. The story begins with a murder and then introduces the various characters lurking in the underworld of drugs, murder and prostitution who are all connected. A debut novel.

The Portable Veblen. Elizabeth McKenzie

A quirky, laugh-out-loud novel in which the heroine, Veblen, talks to squirrels. After a few, short months, Veblen and Paul become engaged to be married. Both come from high dysfunctional families and the story explores what modern marriage means and how it affects an individual’s chance of happiness.

The Improbability of Love. Hannah Rothschild

Annie McDee buys a grimy, old painting in a junk shop, not realising it is a lost masterpiece by Antoine Watteau, an influential French painter of the eighteenth century. In the course of the story, the painting itself becomes the ‘narrator’ outlining its history and its many famous owners, including Marie Antoinette and Queen Victoria. Annie soon finds herself pursued by greedy and unscrupulous people wanting to get hold of her painting.

A Little Life. Hanya Yanagihara

Four classmates move from a small Massachusetts College to Manhattan, their common bond being friendship and ambition. Over the years their friendship deepens, sharing success and failures. At the centre of the friends is Jude, now a successful lawyer, with a troubled past. Jude is an increasingly broken man, both mentally and physically. Can Jude come to terms with his past and move on, with the help of his friends?