2023 Long List

The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrel
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
Glory, NoViolet Bulawayo
Homesick, Jennifer Croft
Fire Rush, Jacqueline Crooks
Children of Paradise, Camilla Grudova
Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes
Trespasses, Louise Kennedy
Dog of the North, Elizabeth McKenzie
Black Butterflies, Priscilla Morris
I'm a Fan, Sheena Patel
Pod, Laline Paull
Wandering Souls, Cecile Pin
Bandit Queens, Parini Shroff
Memphis, Tara M Stringfellow
Cursed Bread, Sophie Mackintosh

Short list announced April 26
Winner announced June 14

thanks for posting, Joyce.

ETA: I made a list to rank the ones we have read.

https://www.librarything.com/list/44469/2023-Womens-Prize-for-Fiction-Longlist

Thanks for posting the list , Joyce . I’ve read Demon Copperhead . I think I may start Trespasses . I have The Marriage Portrait on my TBR shelves . I’ll see what else I get to .

I finished Trespasses and very much enjoyed it. My review is on the review page. 4.5 stars. It was hard to decide which was the better book, Demon Copperhead or Trespasses, but in the end I decided Trespasses was my preferred read. I have The Marriage Portrait, The Bandit Queens and Wandering Souls is on it's way . I'm not sure which book I will read next , or I may take a brief time away from reading the Women's Prize Longlist.

Thanks to all of those who are participating in reading and rating the Women's prize longlist. It's interesting and fun to see what others think of a book.

Great to see you here, Deborah.
I really liked Demon Copperhead. Although I haven’t read David Copperfield, I looked up the plot story and was impressed at how faithful Kingsolver was to the original.
I’m in the library waitlist for Trespasses and Glory. Glad to hear you liked Trespasses so much!

I also really enjoyed The Marriage Portrait.

I really loved Trespasses also. It had beautiful details and great relationship-building between Cushla and the other characters.

I didn't really enjoy Demon Copperhead. While I appreciated drawing attention to the opioid crisis, I found the first half too heart-breaking and the second half too scripted and predictable. I also felt that at the same time that Kingsolver was trying to break stereotypes about Appalachia, she was also perpetuating them.

I've also read The Marriage Portrait, which I really enjoyed, but didn't think was as special as some of O'Farrell's other books. I read The Marriage Portrait as a sort of typical abusive marriage story that happened to be set in 16th century Italy.

Those are the only three I've read so far, though I am also interested in reading Stone Blind and Bandit Queens in the near future.

I finished The Bandit Queens yesterday . Here is my short review.

Geeta is thought to be a widow in her small village in India. Her fellow villagers believe that she killed her husband, but in fact Ramesh walked out on her. Geeta is feared , and is an outcast, since she is regarded as a murderer. She is content to be regarded as a killer, as she is able to live a quiet life without her abusive husband. She helps establish a microloan group with other women in her village, and Geeta makes money creating and selling jewellery.

Things change when another member of the microloan group ,Farah, asks Geeta for help in murdering her husband.

The story deals with the physical and emotional abuse of women and children, the caste system in India. the varied religions and poverty, but it does so in a darkly humourous way. I enjoyed the story, but the ending was a little over the top for me.

4 stars

Of the three books I have read so far from the list, this is my least favourite . Still, a fairly quick and sad but fascinating look into life in India.