The Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlist 2025

Women's Prize For Fiction Shortlist 2025

Good Girl by Aria Aber
All Fours byMiranda July
The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis

I must admit I am surprised that Nesting did not make it. I wasn't keen on Fundamentally, so that is a surprise to me. The Safekeep doesn't surprise me. '

Your thoughts? Surprised or not ? Happy about the choices ?

>2 vancouverdeb: thanks for posting the shortlist. Deborah. I’ve only read 3 from the longlist and 2 made the shortlist, so I’ve a great head start at reading g a winner. I loved the Strout and I am just about to reread it after going back and reading/rereading all the Strout books.
I still want to read The Nesting, and I’ll try to read another 1 or 2 from the shortlist. All Fours was too uneven for me.

>3 raidergirl3: I have only read three books from the Longlist, Fundamentally, The Safekeep and Nesting. So I have read two from the shortlist. I think I will read Tell Me Everything next. I'm not sure when I will read more from the shortlist, Elizabeth.

This is my third read from the Womens Prize Shortlist for 2025.

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout 4 stars

This is a quiet, character driven novel. In Crosby, Maine, Bob Burgess and Lucy Barton continue their friendship, walking together each day and talking about their lives. Olive Kitteridge is in a retirement community, and finally meets Lucy. In the midst of this is a bit of a mystery. An older women is found dead in her car, and murder is suspected. Suspected is her son , Matt Beach. Bob, a semi-retired lawyer agrees to take the case.

This is a novel about loneliness, aging, grief, childhood traumas, marriage,divorce and love in all of its forms.

Well worth the read.

Tell Me Everything is my favourite from the three books I have now read from the shortlist. I don't think I will get to them all, but I have a hold on The Persians, so that will be my next read from the shortlist.

I briefly met a shortlisted author today. I went to Kentish Town Library (not my local library, about 4 miles from where I live in London) to collect some reservations and then went to look round some charity shops. I also had a brief look in the bookshop there, which is quite a large formerly independent bookseller which is now part of the Daunts chain. They do events and signed books and Kentish Town is a rather mixed but gentrified area so quite popular with creative types - there are probably quite a few authors living locally.

I was partly looking to see if the shop has Women's Prize books and other interesting things on display - there isn't an official display but there's a table which included 4 shortlisted titles near the counter. Then a woman came in saying she'd been asked to come in and sign her book - it was Nussaibah Younis, who wrote Fundamentally. She was telling the bookseller that she has read one of the other books and doesn't really feel she can compete, and I said, but you are in the competition, you've made the shortlist. I also said to her I'm hoping the libraries buy more copies of her book, as they usually do if the reservation list gets long - there are 37 people waiting for one copy at the moment (compared to 50 for 6 copies of Dream Count.

This is not about a judgement on the book as I've not read any of the shortlist yet but I do quite like it when award lists raise the profile of newer authors as well as bringing more readers to established, less well known and debut writers.

>7 elkiedee: I wasn't too keen on Fundamentally, though I did give it 3. 5 stars , so it was okay. How exciting to meet Nussaibah Younis! That's a lot of people waiting on one copy. I agree, it's great when any award raises the profile of a new author .

>7 elkiedee: well that sounds exciting!

I’ve read three from the long list and one of those was the Safekeep. I will be reading Tell Me Everything because if is one of my Bookclub reads. I have a hold on All Fours. Even though I haven’t read widely from this list, I think the winner should be The Safekeep. It wasn’t a favorite for me but I thought it was well written and different from the usual.

>10 Kristelh: Thanks for joining the group, Kristel! Great to see you. I'm still not sure what should be the winner, but I have just started The Persians, I can't find the correct touchstone. Let me know what you think of All Fours. I have been reluctant to read that one. I did enjoy Tell Me Everything.

>10 Kristelh: If you are interested, Kristel, Elizabeth created a list of the LongList and you can rate the ones you have read here - https://www.librarything.com/list/46341/2025-Womens-Prize-for-Fiction-Longlist

The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji 3 stars

The Publisher says " A darkly funny, life affirming debut novel following from a once illustrious Iranian family as they grapple with revolutions personal and political ."

I closed the book and wondered, how did this get on The Women's Prize for Fiction, never mind the Shortlist ?

It's a family saga about women who live in both Iran and the USA. There are a variety of women, young and old, and all rich. They have personal and family problems. At times it was fairly entertaining, but I don't know how it came to be on this years Women's Prize List.

I just finished The Safekeep and I really liked it. I was surprised at the reveal near the end, but I shouldn't have been. D'oh! I'm not sure about the ending - it is what I wanted to happen, but not sure if it was realistic. Loved the quiet character growth. I can see why it was on the shortlist, and it's the kind of book I like discovering through this prize. I would never have picked this up, and yet I was rewarded with a new author, and interesting historical fiction.

>14 raidergirl3:. Elizabeth, I thought this book while maybe not my cup of tea is a well written book deserving to be a winner.

>14 raidergirl3: Coincidentally, after a longish wait I'm picking up The Safekeep at the library today. I've made no attempt to read the entire shortlist but it will be nice to have read two of the nominees (Tell me Everything being the other one) before the prize announcement.

>14 raidergirl3: I didn't really care for The Safekeep but gave it 3.5 stars. I'm really not certain what from the shortlist deserves the prize. I have not yet read All Fours or Good Girl ( can't find the touchstone) and neither appeals to me. There are a couple of books from the Longlist that I think deserved that Prize, A Little Trickerie and Nesting . Of the short list, I guess my pick would be Tell Me Everything.

>17 vancouverdeb: If the somewhat graphic nature of The Safekeep didn't appeal, stay away from All Fours. I still plan to read The Nesting, and while A Little Trickerie was intriguing based on your review, it is too hard to find right now. It will stay on my radar for a while, and then I will forget why I wanted to read it, lol. The Persians still looks good even if you didn't think it was quite shortlist worthy. I read Tell Me Everything twice - it was definitely my favourite! I read it first, then went back and read, or reread all of Strout's books, then listened again. Still delightful!

Elizabeth, I am glad to hear that you enjoyed Tell Me Everything because I will be reading that for bookclub soon. I wanted to read the books in order but that plan fell apart but maybe I will go back at some point and read them.

I deleted All Fours from my planned reads in May and it will not make it back on my list even if it wins.

Good Girl is 1.99 on Kobo today. Usually kobo and kindle have the same deals. Off I go to buy it. I don’t know if anyone here has read this one?

>20 raidergirl3:. I think the touchstone is wrong. if you meant Good Girl the one by Aria Aber.

>21 Kristelh: indeed I did. Thanks!

>20 raidergirl3: Charlotte has read Good Girl byAria Aber. She gave it 3 stars, so I don't think she was too keen on it.

>19 Kristelh: I meant to mention that it’s probably a good idea for you to avoid All Fours. I don’t mind graphic descriptions, but this book was weird. There were other sections about the book I really liked, but it was too much for me.