Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Above all be pure.” That was Virginia Woolf, writing in 1932, decades before the Orange Prize for writing by women was instituted, on the insidious voice of what she called the Angel in the House — the figure of the always-sacrificing, always-charming woman who lived to serve the needs of those around her. As Woolf noted: “Killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a woman writer.”
Over 16 years, the Orange has more than established its worth as a prize; as with previous longlists, it challenges the idea that women’s writing is more circumscribed than the writing men produce. Here, looking at the longlisted books, is a brief summary of the kind of subject matter “suitable for women” these days. Woolf’s Angel would, we hope, have fainted.
History: Carol Birch takes her protagonist back to 1857, from London to a ship bound for the Dutch East Indies, on a dragon-catching quest. Julie Orringer’s brilliant take on European history recreates Budapest in 1937, just before World War II. Karen Russell creates a Florida alligator theme park, Swamplandia, threatened by the decline of a family of professional alligator wrestlers. Leila Aboulela spins a complex family story against the background of Sudan in the 1950s. Aminatta Forna sets her ambitious novel in a hospital in Freetown, where a civil war has left its scars. Joanna Kavenna shuttles between a Viennese mental asylum at the turn of the century, and a futuristic breeding centre for babies in Norway. And life under Pinochet’s cruel regime in Chile comes together with memories of Europe under the Nazis in Nicole Kraus’ epic novel.
Places: From New York and San Francisco to Africa, Jennifer Egan’s telling of the erratic life of music mogul Bennie Salazar shuffles time like an expert poker player with a deck of cards. Emma Henderson creates a compelling story set in a mental asylum, where an epileptic brings Paris and the world alive for a troubled young girl; in Roma Tearne’s novel, a tiny village in Suffolk becomes the place where a Sri Lankan refugee and a lonely poet will meet. Wendy Law-Yone takes us to the China-Burma border, where a frontier town attracts the desperate and those who have a life to remake. In Tea Obreht’s tale of books and war, a woman finds escape and meaning in the Balkans via The Jungle Book and other tales. And in Emma Donoghue’s Stunning Room, a young boy and his mother build some kind of life in the room where they are held captive by a psychopath.
Families, Lovers, Strangers: Tishani Doshi mines family history for a gentle rewriting of the standard three-generation family saga; Louise Doughty goes into dark territory with the story of a mother’s grief and survival in the wake of the death of her nine-year-old daughter. Anne Peile explores a tangled family history, with a daughter’s deeply damaged search for her missing father; Lola Shoneyin explores the life of the fourth wife of a Nigerian patriarch in a light, undemanding novel. Samantha Hunt tackles an unusual relationship between a war veteran and a young woman 13 years his junior; Kathleen Winter’s unsettling novel has a boy who might be a girl as its central character. And in one of the few more conventional books on the longlist, Tessa Hadley uses an accidental meeting between a man and a woman in London as a way into exploring relationships and absent families.
| Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) | Sudanese; 3rd novel |
| Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate) | British; 10th novel |
| Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador) | Irish; 7th novel |
| The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury) | Indian; 1st novel |
| Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber) | British; 6th novel |
| A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair) | American; 4th novel |
| The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury) | British/Sierra Leonean; 2nd novel |
| The London Train by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape) | British; 4th novel |
| Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre) | British; 1st novel |
| The Seas by Samantha Hunt (Corsair) | American; 1st novel |
| The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber) | British; 2nd novel |
| Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking) | American; 3rd novel |
| The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus) | American; 3rd novel |
| The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) | Serbian/American; 1st novel |
| The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Viking) | American; 1st novel |
| Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile (Serpent’s Tail) | British; 1st novel |
| Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus) | American; 1st novel |
| The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin (Serpent's Tail) | British/Nigerian; 1st novel |
| The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (Harper Press) | British; 4th novel |
| Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape) | Canadian; 1st novel |
