Women’s Prize winner announced
At an awards ceremony in London on Wednesday night, Susanna Clarke was announced as the winner of the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction with her second novel Piranesi.
Blake Morgan are proud to partner the Women’s Prize and would like to congratulate Susanna on her triumph.
The event was hosted by novelist and Women’s Prize Founder Director, Kate Mosse. Chair of Judges, Bernardine Evaristo presented the author with the £30,000 prize, endowed by an anonymous donor, and the ‘Bessie’, a limited edition bronze figurine by Grizel Niven.
You can see Susanna reacting to her win here, and hear from Bernardine about why the judges chose this extraordinary novel here.
Of the novel, Bernardine said:
We wanted to find a book that we'd press into readers' hands, which would have a lasting impact. With her first novel in seventeen years, Susanna Clarke has given us a truly original, unexpected flight of fancy which melds genres and challenges preconceptions about what books should be. She has created a world beyond our wildest imagination that also tells us something profound about what it is to be human.
About the winning book
Piranesi lives in the House.
Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides which thunder up staircases, the clouds which move in slow procession through the upper halls.
On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food and waterlilies to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone. Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?
Lost texts must be found; secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous. The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.
Blake Morgan and the Women's Prize for Fiction
After many years of supporting the Women’s Prize for Fiction behind the scenes, we are delighted to be proud partner of, and the Official Legal Provider to, the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
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