The Women's Prize for Fiction 2025 shortlist is here – these are my must-reads in the running

Independent

02-04-2025

The shortlist for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction has been announced. The top six novels include four debut authors as well as American writers Miranda July and Elizabeth Strout, all competing for a £30,000 prize.
Founded to champion female authors and fresh voices, the prestigious literary award is now in its 30th year. According to the judges, each of the shortlisted books explores the need for personal freedom and human connection. These books explore a range of topics, covering cultural heritage, friendship, and sexual awakenings.
'Our selection celebrates rich, multi-layered narratives that will surprise, move and delight the reader, all drawing on, in different ways, the importance of human connection,' Kit de Waal, chair of judges, said. 'I'm in no doubt that these six novels will become the classics of the future.'
One of the most talked-about books of 2024, July's novel All Fours explores a middle-aged woman's sexual reinvention and menopause. Strout's latest novel, Tell Me Everything, sees worlds collide as her two most beloved characters, Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton, meet.
The rest of the shortlist is dominated by bold debuts. Yael van der Wouden's novel The Safekeep is a searing story of two women in the Netherlands after the Second World War, while Nussaibah Younis' Fundamentally tells a similar story of female connection in an Isis bride rehabilitation camp.
Good Girl by Aria Aber follows the self-discovery of a young artist and daughter of an Afghan refugee in Berlin, while The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji is a story of five women from three generations of a once illustrious Iranian family whose lives are turned upside down.
Above all, the shortlisted novels put a spotlight on the female experience, from 1960s Europe to present-day America. The winning tome will be announced on 12 June, but you can make your own mind up by reading all six engrossing novels now. Here's where to buy them.
One of the buzziest debuts of the year - and a personal favourite - Nussaibah Younis's Fundamentally is an entertaining novel about a brutal subject. It follows Nadia, a young lecturer whose research into Isis brides leads to her running a deradicalisation program. Newly heartbroken, she is thrown into the chaotic world of international aid. Nadia soon forms a connection with east Londoner Sara, who joined Isis when she was just 15. Exploring faith and friendship, radicalism and racism, and decades of bureaucratic and systemic corruption and hypocrisy, Younis is funny, thoughtful, and sensitive about difficult topics.
With signature wryness, the celebrated American writer and director Miranda July explores female reinvention, sexuality and menopause in All Fours. It follows a 45-year-old woman who sets out on a road trip from LA to New York but ends up in an unconsummated affair with a handsome man in a motel room close to home. Three weeks later, she's thrown back into her married, child-rearing life, but is this enough for her anymore? July breathes fresh life into a well-trodden theme - how creative and sexual freedom is at odds with the traditional trajectory of a woman's life. Her protagonist breaks free of convention to have her cake and eat it, too. Hilarious and profound, there's a reason why so many women love this novel.
Another absorbing debut, The Persians tells the story of three generations of women in a once illustrious family in Iran. Spanning from the 1940s up to the present day, the narrative is shared between five women, beginning with Elizabeth. The elderly matriarch of the family during the 1979 revolution, Elizabeth decides to stay with her husband in Iran and sends her two daughters, Seem and Shirin, to America. Elizabeth's grandchildren are split up; one of them, Niaz, stays with her grandmother in Iran; the other, Bita, is a law student who feels generational guilt for the country her parents left behind. Drawing comparisons to Min Jin Lee's Pachinko, it's a powerful story of one family and their country.
Elizabeth Strout has been longlisted four times and shortlisted twice for the Women's Prize for Fiction. Her latest recognition comes for Tell Me Everything, which sees two of her most famous characters meet - a delight for her fans. It's autumn in Maine, and long-time Crosby inhabitant Olive Kitteridge now resides at a retirement home in the coastal town. She is befriended by the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives in a house by the sea. Striking up a special bond, the two spend long afternoons telling each other stories of the people they have known and the places they've been. Quietly beautiful, the novel explores new friendships and old loves.
Aria Aber's debut Good Girl follows Nila, a wild party-girl and aspiring artist growing up in Berlin. The daughter of Afghan doctors who fled their country before she was born, she is grieving the death of her mother and finding solace in the nightclubs of Berlin. A tumultuous romance with a charismatic American author offers escape from the pressure of being the Afghan ideal of a 'good girl.' Exploring politics, art, history and shame in her journey of self-discovery, it's won critical acclaim.
Set in the Netherlands, The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden is a story of facing up to desire and the past. It follows Isabel, living as a recluse in her late mother's country home. Her solitary life of discipline and routine is threatened when her brother arranges for his new girlfriend to stay for the sweltering summer season. With just the two of them in the house, Isabel's need for control is tested and the tension between the women builds to a crescendo.