The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) has today unveiled the shortlist for its 2024 Encore Award. The Encore Award celebrates the ‘difficult second novel’, marking the achievements of authors moving beyond their literary debuts. It was first presented in 1990 and has been administrated by the RSL since 2016. Previous winners include Sally Rooney, Ali Smith, Sunjeev Sahota, Neil Mukherjee, A. L. Kennedy, Colm Tóibín, and Caoilinn Hughes.

This year’s judges are Fergal Keane, Malika Booker and Maura Dooley, who selected the following five shortlisted books:

A Spell of Good Things – Ayọ̀ bámi Adébáyọ̀ (Canongate)

The Glutton – A. K. Blakemore (Granta)

Enter Ghost – Isabella Hammad (Vintage)

Tell Me What I Am – Úna Mannion (Faber and Faber)

Ordinary Human Failings – Megan Nolan (Penguin)

Describing all of the books as outstanding, they offered the following comments on the five selected titles:

A Spell of Good Things is a superb portrayal of two families living in modern Nigeria and the impact of wealth, power and political corruption on their circumstances. It is a modern African novel building on a strong Nigerian literary tradition. The two main protagonists Eniola and Wuraola enable stunning, compelling insights into the sacrifices and determination needed to survive – whether wealthy or destitute. We were captivated and gripped by this haunting yet brutal portrayal of a society on the brink of catastrophe.

The Glutton follows the bizarre adventures of a peasant boy set against the backdrop of the French Revolution. Blakemore’s luscious poetic fiction enacts the depravity, greed and hunger of the country’s brutal upheaval through the portrayal of a village boy Tarare. It is a harrowing, marvellous, historical psychological tale tracing Tarare’s transformation from a hapless rural child to a depraved glutton on the streets of Paris. Blakemore passionately captures the tender yet disturbing aspects of the eighteenth century tale.

Enter Ghost is as profound as it is powerful, exploring in beautiful prose the essential, humanising importance of art in a world overthrown by conflict. Hammad tells the story of Sonia, a British Palestinian actress who flees a failed marriage and love affair in London to stay with her sister in the West Bank. Family tensions, the haunting of lost love and the impositions of the Israeli occupation build, quite literally, towards a dramatic conclusion: the denouement takes place during a production of Hamlet, staged in the presence of Israeli troops. In a voice that is always original Hammad takes one of the most intractable and polarising conflicts of our time and creates a story braided through with compassion and wisdom. The political, she reminds us, is always human.

Tell Me What I Am centres around an absent mother and the tissues of lies that surround that absence. Moving back and forth in time, and between the protagonists’ perspectives, Mannion creates both a subtle mystery and a tender and moving portrayal of the complexities of domestic abuse, coercion and grief. Cleverly paced, the novel is as much a psychological thriller as it is a careful exploration of damage across generations. This is a book that explores disturbing cruelties with sensitivity and nuance, always subtly through character and landscape. Balanced, complex, lyrical, confident, we thought this an outstanding second novel.

Ordinary Human Failings, set in the 1990s, centres on an Irish family newly-arrived in London in the hope of a fresh start. Their world is turned upside down by the death of a young girl on the estate. Suspicion for the death falls on their own young child. Nolan turns this compelling narrative framework aside to unfold a picture of the twists and turns of family life that have led to this point; false starts, disappointments, resignation and quiet despair.

The characterisation is superb: precise, tender, unshowy. Full of insight, compassionate and clever, we found this a moving and haunting novel capturing the mood of the times.

Author biographies and quotes

Ayòbámi Adébáyò was born in Lagos, Nigeria. Her debut novel, Stay With Me, won the 9mobile Prize for Literature, was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize for Women’s Fiction, the Wellcome Book Prize and the Kwani? Manuscript Prize. It has been translated into twenty languages and the French translation was awarded the Prix Les Afriques. Longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award, Stay With Me was a New York Times, Guardian, Chicago Tribune and NPR Best Book of the Year. Ayòbámi Adébàyò splits her time between Norwich and Lagos.

She says: “I am thrilled that A Spell of Good Things has been shortlisted for this brilliant award. I am grateful to the prize judges and RSL for the honour, and I congratulate my fellow shortlisted authors.”

A.K. Blakemore‘s debut novel, The Manningtree Witches, won the Desmond Elliott Prize 2021, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and was a Waterstones Book of the Month. She is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, Humbert Summer and Fondue, which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection, and has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo. Her poetry and prose has

appeared in the London Review of Books, Poetry, the Poetry Review and the White Review, among other publications.

She says: “I’m over the moon that The Glutton has been shortlisted for the Encore Award. The process of writing and publishing a second novel feels fraught with a whole new set of anxieties and challenges above those involved with a debut, and to be recognised by a prize specifically intended to acknowledge that difficult follow-up is especially pleasing. Thank you to the RSL and especially to the judges, and many congratulations to the other shortlisted authors.”

Isabella Hammad is the author of The Parisian. She was awarded the Plimpton Prize for Fiction, the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Palestine Book Award and a Betty Trask Award. She has received fellowships from MacDowell, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Lannan Foundation. In 2023, she was on Granta’s once-in-a-decade Best Young British Novelists list.

She says: “I’m very happy to be shortlisted for the Encore Award. When debuts usually receive more attention than second novels, it’s really wonderful that there is a prize dedicated to a novelist’s second go. I’m grateful for the recognition, thank you.”

Úna Mannion was born in Philadelphia and lives in County Sligo Ireland. She has won numerous prizes for her poetry and short stories. Her work has been published in the Irish Times, Winter Papers and anthologised in story collections. Her debut novel was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards, the Dalkey Literary Awards, and won the 2022 Kate O’Brien Award.

She says: “For many writers, the second novel can feel lonely and difficult after the excitement and tumult of the debut. The Encore shortlist is a lifeline, a validation of the work and encouragement to keep going. I am so heartened and utterly grateful. Thank you.”

Megan Nolan was born in 1990 in Waterford, Ireland and is currently based in New York. Her essays and reviews have been published by the New York Times, White Review, Guardian and Frieze amongst others. For her debut novel, Acts of Desperation, Nolan was the recipient of a Betty Trask Award, shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.

She says: “It’s always a welcome surprise to have one’s work celebrated, but I am especially thrilled to be nominated for the Encore Award. It is so easy in this industry, as with many other creative fields, for focus to be drawn disproportionately toward first timers – an understandable impulse but one which can feel discouraging when contemplating the hopefully long career ahead post-debut. This award is unique in providing a much-needed boost in a sometimes precarious moment in an author’s career, and I couldn’t be more honoured to have received the nomination.”