The Wellcome Book Prize longlist was announced at midnight yesterday morning. From the prize’s website, you can click on any of the six books’ covers, titles or authors for more information. See also Laura’s reactions post.
Our shadow panel successfully predicted four of these six, with the remaining two (Fanning and Moshfegh) coming as something of a surprise. It’s a shame This Really Isn’t About You didn’t make it through, as it was a collective favorite of the panel’s, but I’m relieved I now don’t have to read Astroturf and Polio. I’m hoping that the rest of the shadow panel will enjoy Mind on Fire more than I did, and will be willing to give My Year of Rest and Relaxation a go even though it’s one of those Marmite books.
There are four nonfiction books and two novels on the shortlist. Given that novelist Elif Shafak is the chair of judges in this 10th anniversary year, it could make sense for there to be a fiction winner this year; this would also cement an alternating pattern of fiction / nonfiction / fiction, following on from Mend the Living and To Be a Machine. If that’s the case, since Moshfegh’s novel, though a hugely enjoyable satire on modern disconnection and emotional numbness, doesn’t have the strongest health theme, perhaps we will indeed see Murmur take the prize, as Annabel predicted in her review. Alternatively, Amateur feels like a timely take on gender configurations, so maybe, as Laura guesses, it will win. I don’t think I could see the other four winning. (Then again, my panel’s predictions were wildly off base in 2017!)
In a press release Shafak commented on behalf of the judging panel: “The judging panel is very excited and proud to present this astonishing collection of titles, ranging from the darkly comic to the searingly honest. While the books selected are strikingly unique in their subject matter and style, the rich variety of writing also shares much in common: each is raw and brave and inspirational, deepening our understanding of what it truly means to be human through the transformative power of storytelling.”
Murmur is the only one of the six that I haven’t already read; I only read Part I and gave the rest a quick skim. So I resumed it yesterday at Part II. I might not get a chance to revisit the other shortlisted books, but I will be eager to see what the rest of the shadow panel make of the books they haven’t read yet. We will all be taking part in an official Wellcome Book Prize blog tour put on by Midas PR. I’ll also look into whether we can arrange Q&As with the shortlisted authors to run on our blogs in the coming weeks.
I won a limited edition David Shrigley Books Are My Bag tote bag in a Wellcome Collection competition on Twitter. Fittingly, it arrived on the shortlist announcement day!
The Wellcome Book Prize winner will be revealed at an evening ceremony at the Wellcome Collection on Wednesday, May 1st.
Follow along here and on Halfman, Halfbook, Annabookbel, A Little Blog of Books, and Dr. Laura Tisdall for more reviews and predictions.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
It’s a diverse shortlist, although I’m also sorry that the Edelstein isn’t on it.
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Hopefully the longlisting will have got her some more attention for the book anyway. (And a bit of money, I presume.)
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I agree that Murmur and Amateur are now the most likely winners, though I wonder if we could see a v surprising win from Moshfegh (as I wouldn’t have shortlisted the book in the first place due to its lack of medical themes, so all bets seem to be off!)
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PS Just looked at your 2017 post and I completely agree with the shadow panel’s decision, rather than the judges!
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The de Kerangal is an impressive literary novel, but I didn’t have the strong connection to it that I did to When Breath Becomes Air, a rare book I’ve read twice and enjoyed just as much the second time.
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I absolutely loved both When Breath Becomes Air and The Tidal Zone. I agree that the Moshfegh, which I’ve not yet read, would be a weird winner for the Wellcome, but then it’s in the running, so…
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I loved the de Kerangal – but hadn’t had time to read When Breath Becomes Air that year which was just brilliant.
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It would certainly be an edgy winner. I think it’s more suited to another prize, though — the Women’s Prize shortlist would have been a perfect place for it. We shall see!
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Four out of six is good going! I was thrilled that Trauma Cleaner made it.
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I knew you would be 🙂 I’m delighted for Krasnostein to have some wider recognition outside Australia.
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Amateur is the one that has the least appeal for me because of the boxing element – I have a strong aversion to labelling as sport an activity which involves violence like this.
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I can understand that. Though the descriptions of boxing are not very graphic, as far as I can recall.
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So surprised that Year of Rest made it, though I really enjoyed it, it does not seem very medical at all. I would like to read The Heart and The Trauma Cleaner; Murmur sounds heart-breaking and Amateur sounds a bit too of the moment.
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The Trauma Cleaner is one I’ve heard so much about so am interested to read that! Not heard of the others so need to investigate more!
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Amateur is so good. I would be quite happy if it won – I think McBee is an excellent, thoughtful writer, not shallow or zeitgeisty at all. A fiction win would be nice too, in which case I’d guess Murmur to be the frontrunner…
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So wanting to read the McBee now. I’ve reserved it at the library but it’s currently out, so have asked MidasPR for a copy.
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Really looking forward to following along with this.
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4 out of 6 is impressive! Based on everything I’ve heard about Moshfegh’s book and the somewhat tenuous connection to the prize’s theme, I’m surprised to see it on the list too.
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I think I remember you having said that if the Mossfeagh was shortlisted that you would give it a proper go, so when I saw this shortlist I got a good giggle out of that. (Maybe I’m misremembering. Either way, I was grateful for the giggle.) It’s interesting that you agreed on 4/6 though. Given that both jury and shadow jury members are bound to have their own personal preferences, this seems like a good amount of overlap!
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It was Murmur that I promised to give a proper reading if it was shortlisted — as I have indeed done since, and enjoyed it much more than I did on a bare skim. The Moshfegh I liked very much, but was surprised to see shortlisted, as I think we all were, because its medical theme seems slight at best.
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