Victoria Amelina wins with her unfinished book Looking at Women Looking at War while Donal Ryan takes the award for political fiction with an intimate portrait of an Irish town. Read more
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At the heart of My Friends is a real-life event from 1984, when officials opened fire on protesters at the Libyan embassy in London. “Matar’s response to those gunshots is a richly sustained meditation on exile and friendship, love and distance, deepening with each page as layers of recollection and experience accrue,” said writer Alexandra Harris, who chaired the political fiction judging panel. Read more
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The Scottish author came up with her project to write four political novels in real time back in 2015, starting with Autumn. Smith began writing Summer, the final book in her Seasonal Quartet, in January 2020 and it was published in August. The novel includes references to Covid-19, Australian wildfires, Brexit and the murder of George Floyd. Read more
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