The winner of The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2024 was announced this evening at the Borders Book Festival – Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein. Many congratulations to Kevin and Bloomsbury Books.
As every year, the shortlist was a varied array of brilliant historical fiction. I read five of the six books, In The Upper Country by Kai Thomas being the one I ran out of time to read. I intend to put that right soon. The other shortisted books were:
The New Life by Tom Crewe
My Father’s House by Joseph O’Connor
In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas
Absolutely & Forever by Rose Tremain
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
If you managed to read any of the books on the shortlist – or indeed the whole shortlist – did the judges pick the right book?
What Cathy Read Next... 
I’ve only read three of the shortlisted books so far and Hungry Ghosts was actually my least favourite (My Father’s House and The House of Doors are the other two I’ve read). I thought it was beautifully written, but too bleak and depressing for me! I’m still planning to read the other three, starting with In the Upper Country.
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I wasn’t surprised Hungry Ghosts won although I agree with you it is a tough read. I had my fingers crossed for The House of Doors. If My Father’s House had won I would have been pleased too but at least we have two further books in the trilogy to look forward to. I heard Joseph O’Connor talk recently and he said the second one is coming out in January next year and he’s just started work on the third, or at least that’s what he’s told his agent! I wasn’t that impressed with Absolutely & Forever and although I thought The New Life was interesting I didn’t love it as much as others have. In the Upper Country is the one I still have to read.
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