Goldsboro Books announces 2020 Glass Bell Award longlist

Bernardine Evaristo's Booker-winning Girl, Woman, Other (Hamish Hamilton) and Robert Harris' The Second Sleep (Cornerstone) both feature on the 12-strong longlist for the 2020 Glass Bell Award.

There are also five debuts on the list: Oyinkan Braithwaite's My Sister the Serial Killer (Atlantic), Joanne Ramos’ The Farm (Bloomsbury), The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (Orion), Blood & Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle) and The Lost Ones by Anita Frank (HQ).

Second novels from Erin Morgenstern and Stephen Chbosky also made it onto the longlist: Morgenstern’s new novel The Starless Sea (Harvill Secker) is an ambitious fantasy novel about a quest launched by a mysterious library book, while Chbosky’s new novel, Imaginary Friend (Orion), is a Stephen King-esque horror story.

Will Caver also made the list with Nothing Important Happened Today (Orenda), as did Taylor Jenkins Reid with Daisy Jones and the Six (another Cornerstone title) and Jay Kristoff with Darkdawn (HarperVoyager), the third and final chapter in the Nevernight series.

The prize celebrates the best storytelling across contemporary fiction. David Headley, Goldsboro Books co-founder and m.d. and founder of the Glass Bell Award, said: "The books on this year’s longlist all spoke to our team of judges in many ways. Each one is a genuinely unique tale for our time, from unlikely serial killer thrillers, to tales of rock and roll excess from the 1970s; from terrifying ghost stories to two incredibly different, but nonetheless equally believable and relevant dystopias; five very talented debut novelists; and of course the hugely deserving winner of last year’s Booker Prize! Narrowing it down to a shortlist of six is both an exhilarating and daunting challenge."

The award is judged by Headley and his team at Goldsboro Books. The shortlist of six will be announced on 11th May, with the winner, who will receive both £2,000, and a handmade, engraved glass bell, will be announced on 2nd July.