Novelist silent for 16 years on Women’s Prize shortlist

A WRITER who became a literary sensation with her first novel then took 16 years to publish her second has been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Susanna Clarke achieved huge success in 2004 with Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which sold four million copies and was adapted by the BBC.

But a year later she collapsed and was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. She struggled to write a planned sequel to Jonathan Strange and instead returned to an earlier idea for a novel.

The result is Piranesi, an otherworldly work and one of six nominees for this year’s Women’s Prize. The judges called it “utterly transporting”.

Clarke is one of two Britons on the list. The second is Claire Fuller with Unsettled Ground, her fourth novel.

There are two debut novelists on the list: Cherie Jones for How the Onearmed Sister Sweeps Her House, and

Patricia Lockwood for No One Is Talking

About This. The shortlist is completed

by Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half and Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom.

Bernardine Evaristo, the Booker Prizewinning author and chair of the judges, praised the shortlisted books as “thrilling reads”.

“We chose the books because we thought they were the strongest, and the fact is that we’re also introducing these books to new readers, and that’s an additional delight for us,” Evaristo said.

The debate over whether a Women’s Prize is necessary – three of the past five winners of the Booker Prize are women – has rumbled on for most of the award’s 26 years. Evaristo said: “We’re still living in a patriarchal society. Even though things have improved over the decades, we have lived in a patriarchal society for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

“In terms of literary history, women have not been well represented. So there is a lot of ground to be made up. It is really important to have a prize which focuses on women’s concerns, and that highlights and champions women’s fiction.

“There may come a time when that’s no longer necessary, but I can’t really see it, to be honest.”

The winner of the £30,000 prize will be announced at a ceremony on July 7.