Book Awards
Last updated: June 21, 2024
While it's impossible to read every single new release on the book market, the judges of each year's biggest literary awards and prizes come closer than perhaps anyone else. Many of them have to read nearly 200 new titles each year in a matter of months, whittle them down to a 6-7 title shortlist, and (finally, with much difficulty) reason their way to a single winner. That's one of the many reasons why literary awards and prizes are a great way to find the best new books to read.
Book awards now also cover a variety of genres, from fiction and its subgenres (historical fiction, science fiction, romance books) to nonfiction and its many specialist areas (biography, memoir, history, business). Here's our collection of interviews with the judges of various book awards that we think are worth paying attention to, about their shortlists, year in and year out:
The Booker Prize (Fiction)
Nobel Prize (Literature)
The Baillie Gifford Prize (Nonfiction)
Wolfson Prize (History)
Walter Scott Prize (Historical fiction)
Arthur C Clarke Prize (Science fiction)
The Hugos (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
The Financial Times Book Prize (Nonfiction that's relevant to business)
The Royal Society Book Prizes (Science, both adults and children's)
The Pushkin House Prize (Nonfiction on Russia)
The Audies (Audiobooks)
Recent Fiction Highlights: The 2024 Women’s Prize Shortlist, recommended by Monica Ali
Each summer, the judges for the Women’s Prize for Fiction highlight the best new fiction books by female writers published over the previous twelve months. We asked Monica Ali, the acclaimed novelist and chair of this year’s jury, to talk us through the six novels that made the 2024 shortlist.
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1
Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death
by Laura Cumming -
2
A Flat Place
by Noreen Masud -
3
Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI
by Madhumita Murgia -
4
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World
by Naomi Klein -
5
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
by Tiya Miles -
6
How to Say Babylon: A Memoir
by Safiya Sinclair
Recent Nonfiction Highlights: The 2024 Women’s Prize Shortlist, recommended by Suzannah Lipscomb
Recent Nonfiction Highlights: The 2024 Women’s Prize Shortlist, recommended by Suzannah Lipscomb
Since 1996, the Women’s Prize has been awarded the best new novels by female writers. This year, for the very first time, an equivalent prize has been established for female nonfiction writers—whose books receive less coverage and lower advances than those of their male counterparts. Suzannah Lipscomb, historian and chair of the inaugural judging panel, introduces us to the six books that made the 2024 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction shortlist.
The Best Science Fiction: The 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist, recommended by Andrew M. Butler
Every year, the judges for the Arthur C. Clarke Award highlight the best of the latest batch of science fiction books. In 2024, the six-strong shortlist includes an exploration of octopus intelligence, a queer space opera, and a dystopian novel hailed as the new Hunger Games. Andrew M. Butler, academic and chair of the judges, talks us through the finalists for the title of sci fi novel of the year.
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1
Not a River: A Novel
by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott -
2
Crooked Plow: A Novel
by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz -
3
Mater 2-10
by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell & Youngjae Josephine Bae -
4
What I’d Rather Not Think About
by Jente Posthuma, translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey -
5
Kairos
by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann -
6
The Details: A Novel
by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson
The Best Novels in Translation: The 2024 International Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Eleanor Wachtel
The Best Novels in Translation: The 2024 International Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Eleanor Wachtel
Every year, the judges for the International Booker Prize read dozens of novels newly translated into English before compiling their shortlist of the very best. We spoke to the Canadian broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel—who chaired this year’s jury—about the six books they’ve selected in 2024: from a slim, elliptical Swedish novel about contemporary relationships to a multi-generational epic set in 20th-century Korea.
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1
Peacemakers
by Margaret MacMillan -
2
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
by James Shapiro -
3
Nothing to Envy
by Barbara Demick -
4
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
by Patrick Radden Keefe -
5
Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest
by Wade Davis -
6
One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time
by Craig Brown
The Best Nonfiction of the Past Quarter Century: The Baillie Gifford Prize Winner of Winners, recommended by Sophie Roell
The Best Nonfiction of the Past Quarter Century: The Baillie Gifford Prize Winner of Winners, recommended by Sophie Roell
“All the best stories are true” runs the tagline of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, the UK’s pre-eminent nonfiction book award. This year, to celebrate the prize’s 25th birthday, a panel of judges picked out books for a winner of winners award, making for an excellent collection of nonfiction books from the last quarter of a century, as Five Books editor Sophie Roell explains.
The 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist, recommended by Cal Flyn
Every year, the Women’s Prize for Fiction highlights the best novels written by women over the previous twelve months. In 2023, the six-strong Women’s Prize shortlist features the latest books by beloved bestsellers Barbara Kingsolver and Maggie O’Farrell, plus a debut novel set during the siege of Sarajevo and a book told primarily from the point of view of a dolphin.
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1
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
by Beverly Gage -
2
The Grimkés: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
by Kerri K. Greenidge -
3
Mr. B: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century
by Jennifer Homans -
4
Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life
by Clare Mac Cumhaill & Rachael Wiseman -
5
Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
by Aaron Sachs
The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
Talented biographers examine the interplay between individual qualities and greater social forces, explains Elizabeth Taylor—chair of the judges for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award for biography. Here, she offers us an overview of their five-book shortlist, including a garlanded account of the life of J. Edgar Hoover and a group biography of post-war female philosophers.
The Best Historical Fiction: The 2023 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist, recommended by Cal Flyn
Every year, the judges for the Walter Scott Prize highlight the best new historical fiction. In 2023, the shortlisted books include a slow-burn mystery set in colonial Australia and a thrilling new novel from the author of Fatherland. Cal Flyn, our deputy editor, takes us through the seven books that are set 60+ years in the past and yet speak to the present.
The Best Political Novels of 2023, recommended by Boyd Tonkin
The Orwell Prizes are the UK’s most prestigious prizes for writing about politics, awarded annually to books and articles that best meet George Orwell’s own ambition “to make political writing into an art.” Boyd Tonkin, chair of this year’s judges, talks us through the books shortlisted for the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.
The Best Science Fiction of 2023: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist, recommended by Tom Hunter
Every year, the judges of the Arthur C Clarke Award select the best sci-fi novels of the previous twelve months. We asked prize director Tom Hunter to talk us through the six science fiction books that made the 2023 shortlist—including a space opera romance and a high-concept action thriller that has already won the most prestigious award in Francophone literature.