BATH NOVEL AWARD: 2017 LONGLIST ANNOUNCEMENT
This year a record 1,163 novels were submitted by writers in 48 countries.
Of the 33 novels selected for this year’s longlist, one third are by writers based outside the UK, including Canada, New Zealand, Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA. Novel settings range from the UK to Ukraine, time travel in Wales, earthquakes in El Salvador, deadly Norwegian forests, even a sunless future Birmingham. Two thirds of the novels are by women writers and one male writer has two novels listed. Six writers have been longlisted by us before, either for an earlier draft or a different book. In terms of genre, literary, psychological suspense, thrillers, YA, women’s and crime lead our 2017 longlist, followed by historical, comedy, fantasy and speculative novels. Notable trends amongst the final 33 include the rise of the immigrant hero, activist lit and a distinct upswing in novels with themes about deception – by those in power and of ourselves – and the search for love, light and life in the darkest of days.
As our judges read “blind” we’ll be keeping the longlisted writers’ identities under wraps until the winner, as chosen by literary agent Laura Williams of Peters, Fraser Dunlop is announced on July 6th. Shortlisted titles will be announced on June 14th.
In the meantime, huge congratulations to the writers of these 33 standout titles:
- After the Lunch
- Alt
- Brave Girls
- Complicity
- Enemies at the Gate
- Finding Freedom
- Forget Me Not
- Hollow
- Honeysuckle
- In a Rushdie Winter
- Iraqnia
- Jacob’s Ladder
- Jonathon Fairfax Must Be Destroyed
- Lost Journals at Sundown
- Lucas
- Mountainous Regions of the Heart
- One of Us
- Over the Coconut Trees
- Service
- Start Wearing Purple for Me Now
- Strangers on a Bridge
- The Binding Frame
- The History of You
- The Light Factory
- The Lost Sister
- The Pact
- The Pear Drum
- The Proof of the Outside
- The Silence of Shannon
- The Still Gate
- Translations
- What Was Left Behind
- Yet Wilderness Grew in My Heart
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