All Of The Incredible Books On The 2019 Women’s Fiction Prize Long List

Don't worry if the last time you encountered the Iliad was at school (guilty) The Silence of The Girls is a retelling of the Homer's epic poem in true Pat Barker style, lending a voice to the wronged and abused women in the tale. The women's perspective centralizes the experiences of loss, slavery and horror the female characters endure making for a gripping read.

Set against the back drop of Philadelphia in 1910, Remembered tells the story of Spring who recalls her life as an emancipated slave while her son, charged of committing a crime based on the evidence of a black man driving a streetcar in a store window faces death. Though this is Battle-Felton's debut novel it's already a mainstay critic's favourite.

Was Killing Eve an obsession? this novel about the complicated interplay between two women, one of whom is a compelling yet compulsive serial killer may just be the thing for you. Organised and efficient, Korede is more concerned her sister will steal her boyfriend than kill him, while her beautiful and chaotic sister Ayoola is convinced she can get away with offing prospective dates. Set against the backdrop of Lagos in Nigeria Braithwaite's novel will have you glued from the first page.

If you're concerned this might be Twilight round two fear not, Broder's razor-sharp writing and observations make The Pisces a satirical rather than saccharine read about a mythical romance. Broders story tells the tale of Lucy, who in a midst of doughnuts and bad 'douche bro' Tinder dates finds sexual satisfaction with Theo, a non-human Merman (yes his fin and aherm...junk are separate body parts).

Set in Northern Ireland during 'The Troubles' in the 1970s, an 18-year-old woman finds herself the recipient unwanted sexual attention from a senior parliamentary figure (Milkman) who she is then accused of having an affair with. Amongst a tangle of sinister threats to kill her boyfriend, Milkman eventually dismantles her sense of identity. In addition to Milkman having already won the Man Booker Prize, Anna Burns novel also set in the Irish 'Troubles', No Bones, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2002.

For her debut novel Nigerian writer Akwaeke Emery tackles fearsome territory but with equally fearsome results. Freshwater follows the battle of Ada, a young Nigerian woman with multiple selves from cosmic and mystic forces existing before her birth through to her life in the US where she studies at college. Ada's voice is eventually possessed by Asughara who hungers for limitless casual sexual encounters, destroying Ada's personal relationships in the process.

Diana Evans Ordinary People dissects the state of marriage after the excitement dies, but this is one suburban drama which won't feel even a little bit like others that have come before. Set in 2008 against Barack Obama's presidency win and seen through the eyes of a collective of middle class mixed-race identity couples, Ordinary People faces the relentlessly modern issues encountered in modern marriages.

Swan Song is based on the real events surrounding the dramatic downfall of author Truman Capote after he published unflattering material about the personal lives of high society women (the 'swans'). But Greenberg-Jephcott's novel focuses on their side of the story, positioning the women Capote betrayed not just as trophy wives but as females with agency, intent and their own sides of the story.

Jones's Oprah-approved fourth novel - An American Marriage follows the journey of a marriage obliterated by the wrongful conviction of a rape. Celestial's husband, Roy is sent to prison but returns when acquitted. An American Marriage explores the effect the wrongful conviction has on their marriage and the struggle to recover it in the aftermath.

Based in a Chinese Restaurant Li's comic story narrates the lives the people who squabble, fall in love and play out their personal dramas within its walls. The main perspectives are interweaved from the perspectives staff and the management, as a micro-war wages over the running of the establishment. Li perfectly balances the chaos of a small business with small emotional details that will make you care about her characters.

Looking for a little mysticism in your reading choices? In Bottled Goods Sophie Van Llewyn transports us to 1970's Cold War Romania when Alina finds herself and her husband as persons of interest to the secret services she deploys the help of her aunt, a practitioner of old folk ways. Cue a compelling magical realism novella as the central character battles with the realities of her situation and the and surreal and magical threads of old folklore that are woven throughout the tale.

Confronting the brutal realities of migrants attempting to travel through Mexico, Luiselli's novel narrates the lives of one US family and their children traveling through Mexico in a car. Their story is counterpointed against children who travel only with a backpack under the protection of a man (the Coyote) who frightens them as they walk for days, cross rivers and struggle to access basic necessities like food or water.

Based in West Africa McFadden's novel is far from a comfortable read, but an important one. When a young girl, Abeo's father is accused of wrong doing she is sold to a fetish priest following the tradition of Trokosi - where girls as young as six are taken as compensation for a family member. As a trokosi, a female slave, along with other girls Abeo experiences starvation, beatings and rape and back-breaking work. Through Abeo's story McFadden's novel confronts the nature of modern slavery and the atrocities that young women continue to face across the world.

This feminist re-working of a Greek Myth by Madeline Miller is told from the perspective of a Nymph (the Circe named in the title). While traditionally a symbol of prescribed femininity, Miller's central Circe turns the classical Nymph trope it's head by being, herself, ungainly, rebellious and prone to conjuring leering drunk men into pigs and navigating single motherhood. In doing so, Miller's Circe becomes a parable about modern feminism.

Though Moss has previously been shortlisted for fiction prizes, Ghost Wall is predicted to be the novel that tips the books to a win. Set over one sweltering weekend a group, including 17-year-old Silvie venture to Northumbria to live out her father, Bills passion for the Iron Age. Historical accuracy, however, soon becomes syntax for Bill to become increasingly violent as he uses it as an excuse for consistent domestic abuse.

Written only a year after her virally successful Conversations With Friends, 28-year-old Rooney's second novel, Normal People follows Marianne and Connell - respectively a brainy but anxiety ridden young woman and the working class star of a football team as they head to Trinity College in Dublin together. In her second book, Rooney masterfully explores the universal natures of love and youth with.