Our winner rather crept up on us! From our shadow panel conversations as we read and blogged about the official shortlist, although we all enjoyed this book, only one of the five panel members pegged it as their personal favourite. However, it scored highly enough with everyone to come out on top, beating the book I expected to win, Amateur (reviewed here) by Thomas Page McBee, into second place by just one point.
My personal favourite from the official shortlist was Murmur (reviewed here). Murmur was a bit of a marmite book with our panel scoring two top scores and two bottom ones, as experimental fiction it begins to yield its meaning upon reflection and close reading as Rebecca found here. I had to take the library loan back, but I’ve bought a copy to revisit when I have the time.
So, which book was our shadow panel winner? Drumroll, please…
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
If you’ve been following this prize, which book was your favourite from shortlist or longlist? The book I enjoyed most of all was Jean Hannah Edelstein’s memoir, This Really Isn’t About You (reviewed here), but it didn’t make the shortlist.
The judge’s decision will be announced on Wednesday evening at the Wellcome Collection in London.
BUY The Trauma Cleaner at Blackwell’s or Amazon UK via affiliate link.
It’s an interesting question re favourite overall longlisted book. Mine is still Amateur, but I thought Sight and It Really Isn’t About You were fab as well.
You can keep Sight 😀
I’ve been following your reviews, and from those, I’m most drawn to Murmer. I’ll be especially interested in discovering who gets the official prize, now, so thanks for this. It’s such a good idea.
Murmur was ace – a challenging read, but rewarding. It’s impossible to guess the winner of this prize this year!