Six ‘inspiring new voices’ made the list, which features a Saltburn-style summer holiday and a Swedish bestseller
Waterstones has selected six “astonishingly impressive and inspiring new voices” for its fourth debut fiction prize shortlist, including Catherine Airey, William Rayfet Hunter and Lucy Steeds.
The shortlist, which also features Gurnaik Johal, Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin and Lisa Ridzén, represents a “bright and promising future for fiction”, said Bea Carvalho, head of books at Waterstones.
Airey was shortlisted for Confessions, a multigenerational family saga, described as “a cool, bold image of female pain and liberation” by Daisy Hildyard in the Guardian.
Hunter made the list for Sunstruck, in which an aspiring musician is invited to spend the summer at a mansion in the south of France with a university friend.
