2025: Women’s Prize

The representation of women in fiction has been under scrutiny for some time. Yes we are well beyond the era of the sighing damsel in distress, but a sustained examination of the intricacies of womanhood is still developing. Too often women are portrayed as needy, or overly heroic or given complexity only within an overused narrative framework.

So it was refreshing to see in this shortlist women in situations rarely depicted in fiction, with some of the deeper, messier and more honest realities of womanhood laid bare.

She felt she was not who she once was. She felt that this should be visible from a great distance.

The Safekeep

We read about a peri-menopausal woman in an implusive act of self-discovery; Isis brides and the fragile negotiations of deradicalisation; dynamics within wealthy refugee families where privilege does not protect against the sense of dislocation; cultural duality and coming of age in a space that exists beneath the surface of respectable society; the effects of WWII on women and their connections to home; and ageing women discovering their continued relevance and power.

These stories illuminate facets of the female experience that are often overlooked. They challenge readers to sit with discomfort, ambiguity and contradiction and to recognise how profoundly women’s lives are shaped by societal, cultural, and personal upheavals.

You had to withstand a profound sense of wrongness if you ever wanted to get somewhere new.

All Fours

The authors also pushed boundaries through form and structure. We weren’t expecting Isis brides satire, peri-menopause auto-fiction or the story of an underground life told without regret. By intertwining personal narratives, wider social issues and experimental narrative structure, these authors are contributing to the evolving landscape of contemporary fiction.

The secret of change is not to waste time fighting the old, but to use your energy to build the new.

Fundamentally

Suzy: I actually really enjoyed all of these books but for my favourite I can’t go past the slightly feral but overwhelmingly amazing All Fours. Miranda July is a complete icon and I love how she shone a very bright spotlight on middle-aged women.

Suzy’s ranking:
1. All Fours
2. Good Girl
3. Fundamentally
4. The Persians
5. The Safekeep
6. Tell Me Everything

Rachel: I loved the boldness of these books. There was certainly no fear displayed by the authors in their character development, narrative style and subject matter. While I connected with some more than others, this is where I want fiction to continue going, bigger and bolder, so women’s stories can’t be dismissed, and our unique and diverse qualities are normalised, not spurned. My pick for the win is the book that went the biggest and the boldest, All Fours by Miranda July.

Rachel’s ranking:
1. All Fours
2. Good Girl
3. The Persians
4. Fundamentally
5. The Safekeep
6. Tell Me Everything