The Women's Prize for Fiction has released its 2025 shortlist and it's a goodie! As well as some incredible novels by well-known names such as Elizabeth Strout, there are several dazzling debuts by the best up-and-coming new writers.
The panel of judges was led by novelist Kit de Waal who is joined by writer and inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers (the Women’s Prize for debut novelists in 2006) Diana Evans; author, journalist and mental-health campaigner Bryony Gordon; magazine editor Deborah Joseph; and musician and composer, Amelia Warner.
Kit de Waal, Chair of Judges, said: "What seems absolutely apparent to me is how perfectly each of these six novels exemplify the original tenets of the Prize: originality, accessibility and sheer brilliance. Our selection celebrates rich, multi-layered narratives that will surprise, move and delight the reader, all drawing on, in different ways, the importance of human connection. What is surprising and refreshing is to see so much humour, nuance and lightness employed by these novelists to shed light on challenging concepts. I'm in no doubt that these six novels will become the classics of the future."
The judging panel now have the job of choosing a winner from these books, which will be announced on 12 June.
The 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist
Good Girl by Aria Aber
In Berlin's underground, where techno rattles buildings still scarred with the violence of thelast century, 19-year-old Nila finds her tribe. In their company she can escape the parallel city that made her, the public housing block packed with refugees and immigrants, where the bathrooms are infested with silverfish and the walls outside are graffitied with swastikas. Escaping into the clubs, Nila tries to outrun the shadow of her dead mother, once a feminist revolutionary; her catatonic, defeated father; and the cab-driver uncles whoseem to idle on every corner. To anyone who asks, her family is Greek, not Afghani. And then Nila meets American writer Marlowe Woods, whose literary celebrity, though fading, opens her eyes to a world of patrons and festivals, one that imbues her dreams of life as an artist with new possibility.
Diana Evans: "This is a highly emotive, psychedelic novel, with writing that is both poetic and politically powerful. Set in Berlin’s artistic underground and nightclub scene, it follows Nila, a young woman born to Afghan parents as she comes to terms with her identity. It’s beautifully written, disarmingly so – I’ve never read sentences quite like this."
All Fours by Miranda July
A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey. Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic and domestic life of a 45-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectations while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.
Amelia Warner: "This is a conversation sparking book which I absolutely loved, there is so much to it that I needed to discuss, the minute I finished it I ordered copies for my friends. It feels like part manifesto, part battle cry for women making sense of a new stage of their life."
The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji
Meet the women of the Valiat family. In Iran, they were somebodies. In America, they're nobodies. First there is Elizabeth, the regal matriarch with the famously large nose, who remained in Tehran despite the revolution. She is kept company by Niaz, her young, Islamic-law-breaking granddaughter. In America, Elizabeth’s two daughters have built new lives for themselves. There’s Shirin, a flamboyantly high-flying event planner in Houston, who considers herself the family's future; and Seema, a dreamy idealist turned bored housewife languishing in Los Angeles. And then there's the other granddaughter, Bita, a disillusioned law student in New York trying to find deeper meaning by giving away her worldly belongings. When an annual vacation in Aspen goes wildly awry and Shirin ends up being bailed out of jail by Bita, the family's brittle upper class veneer is cracked wide open and gossip about them spreads like wildfire. Spanning from 1940s Iran into a splintered 2000s, The Persians is anirresistible portrait of a unique family in crisis that explores timeless questions of love, money, art and fulfilment. Here is their past, their present and a possible new future for them all.
Diana Evans: "This book is full of larger than life characters and rich in Iranian history and glamour. It’s funny, gutsy, confident writing with shifting voices and different modes of story-telling. The Persians is a stunning debut."
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton, who lives nearby in a house next to the sea. Together, Lucy and Bob talk about their lives, their hopes and regrets, and what might have been. Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”
Diana Evans: "This is one of my favourite books by Elizabeth Strout – I loved it! Like most of her work, it’s a story about ordinary people and their stories are so wonderfully woven together. It’s a book with a real symphonic feel, full of emotional truth, intimate conversation and propulsive energy."
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
It’s been fifteen years since WW2 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, and the conflict is well and truly over. Alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel lives her life by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel’s doorstep, as a guest –there to stay for the season… Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, wakes late, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fuelled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house, Isabel’s suspicions spiral out of control. In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to desire, leading to a discovery that unravels all she has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva nor the house are what they seem.
Kit de Waal: "This is a story that takes a new look at a story we all think we know. Told from the perspective of a difficult but lonely woman, facing up to the truth of her privilege while all the time, exploring love and loss and the compromises and betrayals we all make to survive in difficult times."
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
Nadia is an academic who's been disowned by her puritanical mother and dumped by her lover, Rosy. She decides to make a getaway, accepting a UN job in Iraq. Tasked with rehabilitating ISIS women, Nadia becomes mired in the opaque world of international aid, surrounded by bumbling colleagues. Sara is a precocious and sweary East Londoner who joined ISIS at just fifteen. Nadia is struck by how similar they are: both feisty and opinionated, from a Muslim background, with a shared love of Dairy Milk and rude pick-uplines. A powerful friendship forms between the two women, until a secret confession from Sara threatens everything Nadia has been working for. A bitingly original, wildly funny and razor-sharp exploration of love, family, religion and the decisions we make in pursuit of belonging, Fundamentally upends and explores a defining controversy of our age with heart, complexity and humour.
Kit de Waal: "Funny, irreverent, clever and shocking, this is a story of what happens to a young woman who is groomed into fundamentalism abroad, and more importantly what happens when she wants to come home. It’s a fascinating peak behind the curtain of the UN, told with wit, insider knowledge and is definitely not what you expect."
Buy your tickets now for Women's Prize Live
Women's Prize Live is returning to Bedford Square Gardens on 11 June for another day of brilliant author talks, panels and other great bookish events. Speakers this year include Emma Gannon, Priscilla Morris, Kate Mosse, Kavita Puri, June Sarpong, Rose Tremain and Kit de Waal, as well as all the shortlisted writers from the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.
