THE TOP TEN…
10. Half of a Yellow Sun (2007) - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (9)
(GoodReads ranking: 3, equivalent score 8.5)
One of the Prize's more celebrated winners, this one topped a 25th anniversary readers' poll of best winners to date. It's a heavy and at times traumatic tale of a Nigerian family over time, with the 1967-70 Nigeria-Biagra (Civil) War at its epicentre. Brilliant characters, incredible sense of place and time and an important and enlightening history lesson.
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9. The Safekeep (2025) - Yael van der Wouden (9)
(GoodReads ranking: 7, equivalent score 8)
I was very pleased to see the most recent winner get its dues after being passed over for the 2024 Booker. For a relatively slim book, it's got rather a lot going on: brilliant character studies, deep musings on the legacy of racism in the Netherlands, and (more surprisingly) rather steamy sexy bits. A fresh and exciting winner.
8. The Idea of Perfection (2001) - Kate Grenville (9)
(GoodReads ranking: 26, equivalent score 7.5)
A really charming and unique winner, this Australia-set and largely comic novel has at its centre two of the more awkward and bumbling characters I've ever found in 'serious' literature. Though it's far from superficial, it felt like a beacon of lightness in the midst of some very heavy-going early winners. A masterclass in character-based observational writing.
7. Hamnet (2020) - Maggie O'Farrell (9.5)
(GoodReads ranking: 6, equivalent score 8.5)
A deservedly popular winner, with a big film adaptation soon to be released. It focuses on the Shakespeare family but in a way that foregrounds Anne Hathaway (Agnes, here) and the devastating impact of the death of one of their children. In a very strong year, it beat both Girl, Woman, Other and The Mirror and the Light to the Prize.
6. A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing - Eimear McBride (9.5)
(GoodReads ranking: 28, equivalent score 7)
Far from the easiest read on the list, this one pushes the boundaries of language and takes in some deeply traumatic subject matter. But despite being difficult to penetrate I found it to be ultimately hugely rewarding, and I think McBride remains one of the most exciting writers around.
5. Property (2003) - Valerie Martin (9.5)
(GoodReads ranking: 22, equivalent score 7.5)
Speaking of difficult subject matter, this one is set deep amongst the horrors of slavery. Told from the perspective of the wife of an abusive slave owner, it's one of those books where the exclusion of the oppressed voices makes for a deeply (and deliberately) uncomfortable journey, but one that is nonetheless incredibly powerful.
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4. Demon Copperhead (2023) - Barbara Kingsolver (9.5)
(GoodReads ranking: 1, equivalent score 9)
Another massively popular winner, Kingsolver's unique (to date) second victory was much-deserved, for a real epic that riffs heavily on David Copperfield, transplanting it to the drug-ravaged wastelands of modern-day Appalachia. Wildly readable, it maintains its page-turning pace and drama over every one of its numerous pages, crafting some brilliantly memorable characters from Dickens' rich source material.
3. How to be both (2015) - Ali Smith (9.5)
(GoodReads ranking: 25, equivalent score 7.5)
Notable for the formal innovation of being released in two versions with its two narratives (one modern day, one set in the Italian renaissance) order-switched in each. It's tricky to capture everything that's going on here in a few words, but it's a joyful and enriching experience, taking in gender roles, the power of art and much, much more. Highly recommended.
2. The Book of Form and Emptiness (2022) - Ruth Ozeki (9.5)
(GoodReads ranking: 11, equivalent score 8)
Another book that's impossible to describe in brief, it tackles heavy-hitting issues (many of them) with the carnivalesque armoury of postmodernism and deconstruction. If you like the idea of characters with a pet ferret called 'Temporary Autonomous Zone' (or TAZ for short!) and the use of a thinly veiled Slavoj Zizek substitute character as a kind of spirit guide, this one is for you. If you don't know what I'm talking about, nevermind - there's still plenty more to take from this one!
1. Piranesi (2021) - Susanna Clarke (10)
(GoodReads ranking: 5, equivalent score 8.5)
The perfect novel to highlight how successfully the Women's Prize has deviated from the Booker template and cast its net much wider in search of great writing. This novel is on one level pure fantasy, a majestic feat of world-building like nothing else I (an impoverished reader of typically realist literary fiction) have experienced. It's still, however, very much rooted in the literary, with knowing Borgesian references throughout and a central mystery plot that is less 'whodunnit' and more 'who/why am I' and 'what/why is reality'. Simply perfection on every level.
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