WHAT A LOT OF LITERARY PRIZES there are nowadays. The great grandaddy, the Booker, is surrounded by awards that capture every category: novels by women, debuts, experimental books, debuts, historical fiction, debuts — and there are also a few prizes for debut novels. For serious literary fiction, book prizes are one of the few ways to boost hardback sales beyond the hundreds — and even then results are far from guaranteed. But there are enough book awards around that this month’s compendium consists solely of novels that have won prizes — two of which came before publication in the UK.
Every literary season has a book that comes from nowhere and seems to gallop ahead of the competition. This year it is Liz Berry’s novel-in-verse which, since its publication last year, has been rapturously received everywhere, adapted for radio , and won the Writer’s Prize poetry category before going on to win the overall Book of the Year prize. Berry (2014) won three heavyweight gongs.
