I am stealing an idea from Helen of She Reads Novels, who has a page devoted to the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. She is attempting to read all of the novels nominated for the prize since 2010. Since I am always looking for good historical fiction and I have already read several of the nominees and winners, I thought I would try to do the same. You can find more information about the prize on the Walter Scott Prize website. The prize for 2015 will be announced this coming Saturday, June 13, so that is also exciting.
Here are the lists of nominees, showing the winners in bold. I have linked to my existing reviews, and I am also including links to Helen’s reviews. I have also added this list as a page under my About menu so that it is easy to find, and will continue to update the links on that page as I finish the books.
2010
Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
Lustrum by Robert Harris
Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel (My review) (She Reads Novels review)
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
Stone’s Fall by Iain Pears (My review) (She Reads Novels review)
Hodd by Adam Thorpe
2011
The Long Song by Andrea Levy (She Reads Novels review)
C by Thomas McCarthy
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (My review)
Ghost Light by Joseph O’Connor (She Reads Novels review)
Heartstone by C. J. Sansome
To Kill a Tsar by Andrew Williams
2012
On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry (She Reads Novels review)
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (She Reads Novels review)
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst
Pure by Andrew Miller (She Reads Novels review)
2013
Toby’s Room by Pat Barker
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (She Reads Novels review)
The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Kenneally (My review) (She Reads Novels review)
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (My review) (She Reads Novels review)
The Streets by Anthony Quinn (She Reads Novels review)
Merivel: A Man of His Time by Rose Tremain
2014
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (My review) (She Reads Novels review)
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (My review)
Harvest by Jim Crace (My review) (She Reads Novels review)
Fair Helen by Andrew Greig (She Reads Novels review)
An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris (She Reads Novels review)
The Promise by Ann Weisgarber
2015
Zone of Interest by Martin Amis
The Lie by Helen Dunmore (She Reads Novels review)
Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre (My review)
In the Wolf’s Mouth by Adam Foulds
Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut
A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie
The Ten Thousand Things by John Spurling
What a good idea – lots of great books on this list! I’ll have fun reading your reviews!
Yes, I think it will be fun!
I have to take a closer look at the prize… the few books that I know from this list have all been good. I’m attempting to read all the books that have been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize since its inception, but at my current pace, the number of books to read just keeps growing. 🙂
That’s also a worthy effort. I should take a look at that list. How long has the Women’s Prize been going. When I looked at Helen’s list and saw that I had already read 9 of the books and thought they were all excellent, it seemed to be a good idea to try to read all of them.
The prize started in 1996. So far, I’ve read 10 of the 90 books. My undertaking seems a bit daunting when I look at these numbers. 🙂
Wow! That is much more of a challenge! Are you starting with the winners first or just sort of randomly picking winners and finalists?
I’m just randomly reading. With such a huge list to read, any kind of structured plan would probably only put me off.
Anyway, good luck with your reading!
Good luck with this! I’ve updated my page with the links to your reviews.
Thanks!
Oooh! I want to try this. I’m doing only one tour for the rest of this year, and it’s in November, so I’m hoping to do more “free range” reading — and so many of these nominees are on my TBR…
Well, you should join us! Maybe we’ll start a movement! 😉