The Jhalak Prize for Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour is in it’s third year. Last year it was won by Renni Eddo-Lodge for Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (my review). A completely marvellous book – one of my favourites from last year.
This years longlist contains two books I read last year and were amongst my favourites of the year: Ponti by Sharlene Teo (my review), and In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne (my review). Also two more books I really want to read, but haven’t got round to yet: Built by Roma Agrawal, and Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch. It’s not often that I see a prize longlist and can say I know so much about even one book! 🙂
The shortlist announcement is on the 5th April – this week! I’m hoping for Ponti by Sharlene Teo.
The 2019 longlist is:
Roma Agrawal, Built : The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures (Bloomsbury)
Akala, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of the Empire (Two Roads)
Raymond Antrobus, The Perseverance (Penned in the Margins)
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff (ed.), Mother Country: Real Stories of the Windrush Children (Headline/Hachette)
Yrsa Daley-Ward, The Terrible (Penguin)
Aminatta Forna, Happiness (Bloomsbury)
Guy Gunaratne, In Our Mad and Furious City (Tinder)
Afua Hirsch, Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging (Vintage)
Damian Le Bas, Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain (Chatto & Windus)
Roy McFarlane, The Healing Next Time (Nine Arches)
Onjali Q. Rauf, The Boy At The Back of The Class (Hachette Childrens)
Sharlene Teo, Ponti (Picador)
Be Exactly Who You Want To Be 
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