China Miéville has secured this year’s Goldsmiths Prize for his novel The Rouse.
The Goldsmiths Prize, established in 2013 to celebrate fiction that breaks the mold or expands the possibilities of the novel, has previously recognized authors such as Ali Smith, Kevin Barry, Eimear McBride, and Rachel Cusk, among others. The prize carries a £10,000 purse and was judged this year by Kate Briggs, Hari Kunzru, David Sexton, and Francis Spufford (the jury chair).
“Although every title on the shortlist is excellent, the jury believed this year’s Goldsmiths Prize should be awarded to the work that, through its ambition, daring use of history, linguistic experimentation, and sweeping scale, most disruptively defies expectations.”
The other contenders this year were Polly Barton (What Am I, A Deer?), Doireann Ní Ghríofa (Said the Dead), Keith Ridgway (Dooneen), Aea Varfis-van Warmelo (Attention Seeking Behavior), and Missouri Williams (The Vivisectors). The prize remains one of modern literature’s most adventurous and unruly honors—and for those who have not yet explored The Rouse, this should serve as further encouragement. It is, in many readers’ view, a truly mold-breaking work, unlike anything else you’ve read or may ever read.
