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Garmus, Osunde and Kennedy make inaugural Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize shortlist
Bonnie Garmus, Eloghosa Osunde and Louise Kennedy are among the “bold and original new voices” shortlisted for the inaugural Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize.
The £5,000 award is voted for by Waterstones booksellers. A winner is announced at an evening ceremony on 25th August and will receive the backing of all Waterstones shops and the retailer’s website. Two of the books on this year’s shortlist are published by Bloomsbury.
Garmus is up for Lessons in Chemistry (Doubleday) described by the retailer as “at once a love-letter to science, an unflinching portrait of 1960s America, what it meant to be a woman and a mother at that time, and a furiously feminist manifesto which challenges the era’s status quo”. The chain said it “wowed booksellers with its spiky, unforgettable protagonist, sharp storytelling, and enormous heart”.
Osunde’s Vagabonds! (Fourth Estate) is also in contention, praised by Waterstones as “a portrait of life and death in contemporary Nigeria like no other”. “Eloghosa Osunde’s bold and beautiful mosaic of a debut novel mixes realism with folklore and mythology with dazzling effect, the novel’s heroes are the marginalised people of Lagos, whose intersecting lives present a multi-faceted, playful indictment of the country’s capitalism, corruption and oppression” it said.
Kennedy’s Trespasses (Bloomsbury) is also in the list, described as "an unflinching history of life in 1970s Belfast and a poleaxing love story which celebrates the beauty to be found in the darkest times”. Waterstones booksellers said: “Told with real restraint and skill, this powerful, resonant novel should be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand this important part of our recent history.”
It is joined by The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (Oneworld) , which describes the lives of the residents of the Rabbit Hutch – an affordable housing complex in a decaying Rust Belt town. Waterstones said: “It deals with the care system, urbanisation, poverty, and gentrification but mainly, it’s a book about one girl’s coming of age with the odds stacked against her and finding family and community in the unlikeliest of places. Booksellers were blown away.”
Also shortlisted is Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark (Bloomsbury) an “extraordinary debut novel” which sees a world reeling in the wake of a global pandemic and explores humanity’s endless capacity for recuperation and recovery. The retailer said: “Blending realism with high concept science fiction, its interweaving chapters present a kaleidoscopic picture of the rippling effects of catastrophe over continents and decades, even reaching into space.”
Tara M Stringfellow’s Memphis (John Murray) completes the list. It tells the story of three generations of women in a fierce celebration of black womanhood and the enduring strength of familial bonds. Waterstones said: “Stringfellow paints a vivid portrait of a neighbourhood and community in all its light and shade in a sweeping yet intimate history of over half a century. Memphis explores the Civil Rights movement, economic mobility, violent crime, and abuse, but there is plenty of joy in these pages too in the family’s love stories, their love for each other, a richly evoked sense of place, and the redemptive power of art.”
Bea Carvalho, Waterstones head of fiction, commented: “For the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize’s inaugural year our booksellers have chosen an extraordinary shortlist of bold and original new voices. The exceptional quality of submissions signifies a bright and exciting future for fiction, and our six finalists represent the dazzling scope of storytelling talent amongst this new generation of novelists.
“Taking us from 1970s war-torn Belfast to space-travel via modern Lagos’s spiritual underbelly and the political landscape of contemporary America, this is a truly global shortlist which broadens horizons and challenges genre. United by a generous capacity to find hope, light, and community in the unlikeliest places, they are all timely and important novels by writers of staggering ambition and talent.”
