The Goldsmiths Prize 2020 - The Shortlist

Before I even talk about any of the books or authors nominated for this year’s shortlist, I just wanted to point out how enticing the tagline is for this prize.

Fiction at its most novel.

I am proud to be a part of the Goldsmiths community and part of this is due to the creative and subversive culture that it cultivates. It is part of a competition that embodies the spirit of invention. They are constantly searching for new and innovative ways to tell stories.

There are six books shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020, each of them are concerned with characters in extremis and loss of moorings. This seems incredibly on point for the theme of 2020. I don’t think there was a single writer out there who didn’t consider putting pen to paper when this crisis happened. Many found themselves concentrating on themselves rather than their art as they tried to pull through. Others found this process cathartic and for this reason we will have a plethora of literature out there reflecting our current thoughts. Stories that will continue to entertain and inform throughout history.

Personally, I have too many stories in my head that I feel like I need to tell first, so I thought I’d leave this particular topic to the virtuosos. People like those shortlisted for this prize. Now, I don’t think any of these books were actually written during lockdown (especially as the process from book contract to publication can take time).

However, it is important to remember that there was a time before Covid (BC) and some of us were lost before this. Most of these feelings have only been exacerbated. I am excited to read these books and see if some of their ideas have the capability of evolving with this ‘extremis’ that we are experiencing now.

Mr Beethoven

Paul Griffiths
Henningham Family Press

I already like the fact that this is written by a music critic. He is going to bring his own unique interpretation to a book that, to me, already has a fascinating premise. Griffiths sets up a hypothetical world in which he proposes Beethoven has seven extra years of life and travels to a young America. Beethoven will forever live on through his music and I am intrigued by the fact that Griffiths felt the need to grant this immortal composer a few more years in which to fit more genius into.

Meanwhile in Dopamine City

DBC Pierre
Faber

Any book that likes to play with form is a winner in my opinion (and this one has already won the Man Booker Prize!). Each page is split with one side displaying the inane, constant chatter that pours from the smartphone of our protagonist’s daughter. Pierre tells an exposing story of surveillance, which in a Track and Trace world I find highly poignant, in a hilarious, if not slightly frustrating way (you’ll see what I mean about the pages when you read it!).

A Lover’s Discourse

Xiaolu Guo
Chatto & Windus

Guo writes about a Chinese film student living in London and the difficulties that comes with this. Don’t let it escape your attention that Roland Barthes also has a book of a similar name and Guo integrates quotes from him seamlessly into her own work. The book interrogates life as an immigrant in a post-brexit world and more than this she examines language, language as we know it and language to the ‘foreigner’. I highly recommend purchasing this book for its intertextuality and for the many textures it adds to the language it contains. As a Comparative Literature student this book almost calls to me.

The Mermaid of Black Conch

Monique Roffey
Peepal Tree Press

This sounds like a dream of a fantasy book! As a young girl, I am proud to admit, it was fantasy stories that turned me into such a voracious reader. My journey began with enchanted woods and voyages through mysterious waters and I have to say reading about a mermaid in the Caribbean Sea will never get old. Weaving history and mystery together creates an element of timelessness in this book that will get many eternally young readers excited.

The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again

M. John Harrison
Gollancz

There is an element of mystery surrounding Harrison’s book that I don’t suppose I will be able to penetrate until I have read it. He says in this twitter feed that ‘it isn’t science fiction or folk horror or psycho-geography but it contains parodic elements of all three and more.’ It seems that Harrison is a fan of subverting his genre and if this sounds like something that gets you all excited then you should read his previous books. In this one, the very ground on which our protagonist stands on is weaved into the life he is trying to figure out with his dysfunctional lover.

Bina

Anakana Schofield
Fleet

This is a story written on the back of discarded envelopes. It is immediately revealed to us that this a narrative told in fragments. However, on the front page it is also written that it is a novel in warnings. This, along with the bitingly hilarious narrative voice, sets up the book to be an excellent dark comedy. You can expect a review of Bina as I have a premonition that this might win – her last book, Malarkey, won multiple awards – and also because I am dead keen (please excuse the pun for those in the know) to read it.

As we enter a second lockdown, I am looking forward to reading and reviewing some of these books, observing how the characters live through loss and confusion and compare them to a nation in the midst of similar feelings. I want to see how they translate to the reality we are living with now, given that this particular topic was chosen for 2020’s theme.

Although I have said that I will be reading and reviewing Bina as I think it may win, I will first be purchasing A Lover’s Discourse and, for this reason it is my prediction for the winner. I will release a review once I have finished but, if I am incorrect about the winner (which it is very likely I am because I chose this for purely selfish reasons) then I will also review the winner who will be announced on the 11th November.

p.s. I don’t care if you think I’m cheating by having two predictions!

p.p.s. I Just went to my local bookshop and they had run out of copies of Guo’s novel so I am just waiting for them to get their next delivery in. This may cause delays but I am willing to wait in order to support my independents during these times!