The shortlist for the 2017 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction has been released, with one judge calling it ‘daring and intimate.’
The prize, which is in its last year of sponsorship with the alcoholic beverage contains a shortlist featuring previous winner Linda Grant and first-time novelist Ayobami Adebayo.
The novel titles and summaries are below:
Stay With Me – Ayobami Adebayo
‘Set against the social and political turbulence of 1980s Nigeria, Stay with Me is a story of marriage and motherhood. Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage to Akin is to have a child. When his family insist he takes a second wife she is livid with jealousy and becomes desperate to get pregnant before her rival.’
The Power – Naomi Alderman
‘The Power imagines a world in which almost every woman suddenly develops the ability to electrocute people with a flick of their fingers.’
The Dark Circle – Linda Grant
‘Diagnosed with tuberculosis in post-war London, an East End teenage brother and sister are sent away to a sanatorium, where they find themselves trapped in a sterile environment in the company of a host of extraordinary characters.’
The Sport of Kings – CE Morgan
‘A contemporary portrait about the scars of the past that run through an American family, The Forges, who are first-time horse breeders. When an African-American man, just out of prison, comes to work in the stables, the ugliness of the farm’s history rears its head.’
First Love – Gwendoline Riley
‘Neve, a writer in her mid-30s married to an older man, Edwyn, draws the reader into the battleground of her relationship.’
Do Not Say We Have Nothing – Madeleine Thien
‘Thien’s novel, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2016, brings to life one of the most significant political regimes of the 20th Century – China’s Cultural Revolution. The story is told through the eyes of a young Chinese woman who has fled to Canada from Tiananmen Square.’
The winner of the prize will be announced on 7th June at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Check out some more information on the prize below:
