The Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022 longlist is here – and features five debut authors

Set against a Trinidadian backdrop, Allen-Agostini’s debut novel has a blazing feminist message and tells the story of Alethea Lopez, an unforgettable woman nearing 40 who is at the start of a new journey freeing herself from a violent and abusive relationship. It touches on themes of gendered violence, racism and female liberation.

Allison reimagines England in this dystopian novel. Rising sea levels, climate crisis and a global pandemic grip the reader. The book’s backdrop works to form the basis of what may become of our world. It touches on love and loss, as well as community spirit and resilience. When discussing the novel, judge Mary Ann Sieghart said it’s “an extraordinary, poetic, elegiac book”.

Coming-of-age novel, Careless, is Capes’s debut and follows 15-year-old foster child, Bess, who learns that she is pregnant and has no one to tell. The book explores how the protagonist decides what she should do. Told with empathy and compassion, it’s equal parts heartbreaking and funny.

Set in Buchenwald concentration camp, Remote Sympathy is a bleak and harrowing Second World War historical fiction novel. It follows three different characters, all of which are on different sides of German nazi atrocities. An SS officer, his wife and the incarcerated doctor she befriends while her husband is away. It’s been said that Chidgey doesn’t shy away from the uncomfortable and barbaric truths.

Having been Reese Witherspoon’s book club pick for July 2021, if you’re looking for a summer read, this is it. It’s an evocative story that tells the tale of 50-year-old Elle who has a night of passion with her old flame Jonas while on a family summer getaway. Her husband and Jonas’s spouse are totally unaware. Touching on guilt and forgiveness, it’s undoubtedly a book you’ll gobble up.

Revolving around two families who are neighbours, Sherry and Leslie and their daughters, Rae and Pauline, and Eve and her son Daniel, Flamingo is about an unforgettable summer they spend together. But one day something happens that disrupts all this and secrets come to a head.

Poignant and witty, The Sentence is Edrich’s 23rd novel and combines contemporary events with a ghost story set in a Minneapolis bookshop. It’s a multifaceted novel that explores how history and heritage continue to shape modern-day.

Moving between forests, nightclubs and zoos, Build Your House Around My Body draws on Vietnamese folklore and history and is about two women who go missing two decades apart. The twists and turns in Kupersmith’s debut make it an unputdownable novel.

Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss took the top spot in our guide to the best books of 2021 thanks to being an “exciting, funny, and thought-provoking novel”. It tells the story of 40-year-old Martha and her dysfunctional family, failed marriage and depression. While it “sounds like a truly awful misery read”, our writer noted that “it’s the funniest book of the year, with the most recognisable characters”.

Touching on sacrifice, toxic family politics, queer desire, and personal freedom, Mendelson explores a heady mix of themes. The story is centred around the Hanrahan family, and in particular, the selfish father, Ray, as he prepares for his new exhibition. The book counts down to the event and chronicles how, slowly but surely, things start to unravel.

Judge, Anita Sathi, said it is a “fantastically gripping portrait of family dynamics, which manages to be both heart-breaking and humorous”.

This is “a deeply moving story of family, loss and love, and a provocative lesson in mindfulness and the art of mastering inner peace”, noted The Independent’s guide to five new books to read. It follows 13-year-old Benny Oh who starts hearing voices in his head after his father dies and explores how he learns to deal with it. Dorothy Koomson, one of the judges, said it’s “touching, humorous and beautiful in equal measure”.

Ross conjures up a surreal and imaginative world “where butterflies are edible and each human is blessed with their own form of magic” noted our writer in their guide to the new books to read. It features a range of quirky characters and showcases a 24-hour period of true love and is said to be funny and insightful.

Set in Cyrpus, The Island of Missing Trees is told from the perspective of a fig tree and follows the lives of two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided land, that meet in secret at a tavern. Exploring the legacy of secrecy on future generations, it was praised by Dorothy Koomson, one of the judges, for being a “hauntingly beautiful tale” that touches on “loss and identity, love and redemption”.

Shipstead spent seven years writing her third novel, and it’s sure to be worth the wait. It offers a thrilling story of the life of a fearless female aviator who disappeared in 1950 while attempting a north-to-south circumnavigation of the earth, and an actor who portrays her on screen decades later. It’s a soaring novel that will undoubtedly grip you.

Walton’s debut oral-historical book featured in Barack Obama’s 2021 reading list and follows a cult band in early Seventies New York. The author paints a portrait of the era that is rich in atmosphere and tells the story of Opal, a fiercely independent young woman, who is finding her niche in the creative scene and is asked to join a rock duo with Nev.

Set in Washington DC, Creatures of Passage explores a forgotten quadrant and the ghosts that haunt it. The novel follows grief-stricken Nephthys Kinwell and her 10-year-old nephew who are both learning to deal with the ghosts around them. It draws on love, loss and death.

This is a “really magical, unexpected plot. It was an addictive book to read and I kept wanting to go back and enter that world again and again”, praised one of the judges, Lorraine Candy.