The Authors’ Club is delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2024 Best First Novel Award, now in its 70th year.
Lucy Popescu, chairing the judging panel, commented: ‘We are thrilled to announce our shortlist of six outstanding debuts. These brilliant novelists tackle complex themes including religious violence and trauma, masculinity and male desire, neurodiversity, love and loss. There are intense explorations of belonging and identity as well as rich evocations of time and place.’
The winning novel will be selected by this year’s guest adjudicator, journalist and broadcaster Samira Ahmed, and announced at a dinner at the National Liberal Club in London on 22 May. The shortlisted books, with the judges’ comments, are as follows:
One Small Voice by Santanu Bhattacharya (Fig Tree)
An atmospheric, multilayered coming-of-age story, set against a backdrop of Muslim-Hindu tensions, and a poignant meditation on childhood trauma and its far-reaching effects.
The New Life by Tom Crewe (Chatto & Windus)
A highly accomplished novel exploring homosexuality in the late 19th century. The quality of Crewe’s writing is outstanding.
Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks (Jonathan Cape)
An evocative panorama of a novel that transports us from Britain to Jamaica. The story’s pace and plot never falter.
Pearl by Sian Hughes (The Indigo Press)
Hughes’s writing is both economical and evocative in this searing account of grief and loss. Her powers of description and imagery are stunning.
All the Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow (Tinder Press)
A perceptive and nuanced novel that beautifully illuminates issues around neurodiversity. Lloyd-Barlow skilfully portrays her protagonist’s complex relationships and interactions.
Close to Home by Michael Magee (Hamish Hamilton)
A compelling exploration of masculinity, and a richly detailed portrait of Belfast that fizzes with energy. A superb debut.
Key dates
Weds 24 April: Meet the shortlisted writers at the National Liberal Club, London, SW1A 2HE
Weds 22 May: The winner will be announced at a dinner at the National Liberal Club
About the prize
The prize is open to any debut novel written in English and published in the UK between 1 Jan and 31 Dec 2023. The prize of £2500 exists to support UK-based authors, publishers and agents, so the novel must originate in the UK and not have been published anywhere else in the world before its UK publication.
Inaugurated in 1954, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award is now in its 70th year, making it the longest-running UK prize for debut fiction and – except for the James Tait Black and the Hawthornden – the oldest literary prize in Britain.
Previous winners have included Brian Moore, Alan Sillitoe, Paul Bailey, Gilbert Adair,
Nadeem Aslam, Diran Adebayo, Jackie Kay, Susan Fletcher, Nicola Monaghan, Laura Beatty, Anthony Quinn, Jonathan Kemp, Kevin Barry, Ros Barber, Hisayo Rowan Buchanan, Gail Honeyman, Guy Gunaratne, Claire Adam, Ingrid Persaud and Tish Delaney. Last year’s prize was awarded to Ayanna Lloyd Banwo for When We Were Birds.
Past adjudicators have included Louisa Young, Alex Wheatle, Andrew Miller, Louise Doughty, AL Kennedy, Vikram Seth, Philip Hensher, Joanne Harris, Deborah Moggach and, going back further, Kingsley Amis and Compton Mackenzie.
About the Authors’ Club
Established by Walter Besant in 1891, the Club has provided a social meeting place for writers for 133 years.
Contact: lucyjpop@gmail.com