In a year with some extraordinary books on the short list including the presumed favorite Hilary Mantel’s Bringing Down the Bodies, AM Homes has become the 5th American in a row to take home the top prize for her novel May We Be Forgiven.
Actress Miranda Richardson, who cleared her schedule much to the chagrin of her agents, to take on the chair of this prestigious award said this about Homes’ book:
It was so fresh and so funny – darkly funny – and so unexpectedly moving…It is a book where we all found ourselves laughing out loud on trains or wherever we were reading…You’re laughing in kind of fear or horror as much as anything else. It’s relentless, but great.
The judges BBC correspondent Razia Iqbal, journalist Rachel Johnson, and authors Jojo Moyes and Natasha Walter deliberated for four hours before making a decision and picking Homes. The remaining novels on the short list were: Zadie Smith’s NW, Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behaviour and Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette.
Last year Madeline Miller received the top prize which next year will be called the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.
AM Homes Wins Women’s Prize for Fiction (The Guardian)
Women’s Prize for Fiction Snags New Sponsor
Miranda Richardson- I Hate Our Sneering Attitude Towards Success (The Guardian)
