Ganeshananthan, Klein win Women’s Prizes

In the UK, Brotherless Night by US author V V Ganeshananthan (Viking) has won the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction, and Doppelganger: A trip into the mirror world by Canadian author Naomi Klein (Allen Lane) has won the inaugural Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, reports the Bookseller.

Brotherless Night, chosen as the fiction winner from a shortlist of six, depicts a family fractured by the Sri Lankan civil war. The chair of judges for the fiction prize, Monica Ali, called it ‘a brilliant, compelling and deeply moving novel that bears witness to the intimate and epic-scale tragedies of the Sri Lankan civil war’.

‘In rich, evocative prose, Ganeshananthan creates a vivid sense of time and place and an indelible cast of characters,’ said Ali. ‘Her commitment to complexity and clear-eyed moral scrutiny combines with spellbinding storytelling to render Brotherless Night a masterpiece of historical fiction.’

Doppelganger, which explores truth and polarisation in politics and was prompted by Klein’s experience of being repeatedly confused with the author Naomi Wolf, was chosen as the nonfiction winner, also from a shortlist of six. The chair of judges for the nonfiction prize, Suzannah Lipscomb, said of the book: ‘This brilliant and layered analysis demonstrates humour, insight and expertise. Klein’s writing is both deeply personal and impressively expansive. Doppelganger is a courageous, humane and optimistic call-to-arms that moves us beyond black and white, beyond Right and Left, inviting us instead to embrace the spaces in between.’

Ganeshananthan and Klein each receive £30,000 (A$57, 516).

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