Now in its 26th year, the Women's Prize for Fiction has just announced the titles that have made the shortlist to contend for the 2021 prize. The purpose of the prize is to "champion women writers on a global stage" and the winning books over the years are an exciting collection of compelling fiction (this would be quite the summer reading list!).

Chaired by Bernardine Evaristo, the judges chose the following six books for the shortlist. They are all available at NYPL in print and digital formats. The winner will be announced July 7.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Separated by their embrace of different racial identities, two mixed-race identical twins reevaluate their choices as one raises a black daughter in their southern hometown while the other passes for white with a husband who is unaware of her heritage.

 

 

 

 

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Living in a labyrinthine house of endless corridors, flooded staircases and thousands of statues, Piranesi assists the dreamlike dwelling’s only other resident throughout a mysterious research project before evidence emerges of an astonishing alternate world.

 

 

 

 

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

When their mother dies suddenly, 51-year-old twins Jeanie and Julius, who have limited exposure to the outside world, strive to find a way forward until secrets from their mother’s past come to light, forcing them to question who they are.

 

 

 

 

Trancendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

A follow-up to the best-selling Homegoing finds a sixth-year PhD candidate grappling with the childhood faith of the evangelical church in which she was raised while researching the science behind the suffering that has devastated her Ghanaian immigrant family.

 

 

 

 

 

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones

Lala must deal with a chain of events that have terrible consequences when her petty criminal husband is interrupted in his attempt to rob one of the mansions in their "paradise" home of Baxter Beach, Barbados.

 

 

 

 

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

Elevated to prominence for her social-media posts, a woman begins suffering from existential anxieties while learning the languages, customs and fears of her fans throughout the world, before an urgent text from home transforms her virtual perspectives.

 

 

 

 

 

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Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.