Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2017

The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction is the UK’s most prestigious annual book award for fiction written by a woman. Founded in 1996, the Prize was set up to celebrate excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women throughout the world. 

This year’s winner (announced last Wednesday) was Naomi Alderman. Let's have a look at the full shortlist, available to borrow from your local Torfaen library. 

Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀̀  - The desperate need to bear a child drives this electric tale of grief and jealousy set in the south-western Nigerian state of Osun.

Society demands children of Yejide, but two years of her marriage with Akin have resulted in only failure.  Alternating perspectives flesh out the overt patriarchy of this Yoruba community, asking of what must be sacrificed in order to retain tradition and the need of a continued bloodline.  

The Power by Naomi Alderman - Overnight, the balance of power – both metaphorically and literally – shifts to teenage women across the world, who suddenly gain the ability to kill by mere touch. From this almost John Wyndham-esque premise, Naomi Alderman spins a dazzlingly audacious story that draws together three women with entirely exclusive experiences – criminal, religious and political - plus a young male driven to document the entire revolution. 

The Dark Circle by Linda Grant - This hugely regarded author returns with a novel which brilliantly deploys the setting of a 1950s NHS sanatorium to explore the rich social complexity of post-war Britain. Lenny and Miriam Lynskey find themselves as inmates in this strange, closed world, both gripped by slowly-consuming tuberculosis: life, however, still fights its way to the surface. 

The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan - A tale of wealth and poverty, racism and rage, The Sport of Kings is an unflinching portrait of lives cast in shadow by the enduring legacy of slavery.

The Forges, a powerful Kentuckian dynasty, are defined by their need to triumph.  The arrival of a young black groom, Allmon Shaughnessy, is the catalyst to the buried violence of the past and the boiling passions and greed of the present.   

First Love by Gwendoline Riley is the retrospective exhumation of a life and a marriage, where Neve, a wife in her mid-30s, teases apart the strands of incident that have led her to the uneasy, compromised calm of the now. Edwyn, her rather older husband, swings from one mood to the next whilst Neve constantly probes away at the decisions she has made and the bland myths of freedom. 

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien is an epic in both ambition and execution, tracking the interwoven lives of three Chinese musical prodigies from the foundation of the People’s Republic in 1949 through to the present day.

Throughout, their profound love for music both inspires and haunts the trio as they endure vast and sometimes savage shifts in China’s social and political landscape. 

Gwobr Baileys am Ffuglen gan Fenywod yw’r wobr flynyddol fwyaf ei bri yn y DU am ffuglen gan fenyw. Sefydlwyd y Wobr yn 1996 er mwyn dathlu rhagoriaeth, gwreiddioldeb a hygyrchedd mewn ysgrifennu gan fenywod ar draws y byd.

Enillydd eleni (a gyhoeddwyd dydd Mercher diwethaf) oedd Naomi Alderman. Gadewch i ni edrych ar y rhestr fer lawn sydd ar gael i fenthyg gan eich llyfrgell leol yn Nhorfaen.

Stay With Me gan Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀̀  - Mae’r angen angerddol i gael plentyn yn gyrru’n stori yma o alar a chenfigen yn nhalaith de-orllewinol Nigeria, Osun.

Mae cymdeithas mynnu plant gan Yejide, ond dim ond methiant a gafwyd ar ôl dwy flynedd o briodas i Akin.  Mae persbectifau amgen yn chwyddo’r batriarchaeth amlwg yn y gymuned Yoruba hon, gan ofyn beth sy’n rhaid ei aberthu er mwyn cadw traddodiad a’r angen am barhad teuluol. 

The Power gan Naomi Alderman - Dros nos, mae cydbwysedd grym - yn ffigurol ac yn llythrennol - yn symud o blaid menywod yn eu harddegau ar draws y byd, ac yn sydyn maen nhw’n cael y gallu i ladd trwy gyffwrdd yn unig. Gan ddechrau o’r cynsail John Wyndham-aidd yma, mae Naomi Alderman yn gweu stori feiddgar sy’n tynnu tair menyw â phrofiadau cwbl dethol - troseddol, crefyddol a gwleidyddol -yn ogystal â dyn ifanc sy’n cael ei yrru i gofnodi’r holl chwyldro.

The Dark Circle gan Linda Grant – Mae’r awdur mawr ei bri yma yn dychwelyd gyda nofel sy’n defnyddio sanatoriwm yn y 1950au i chwilota cymhlethdodau cymdeithasol cyfoethog Prydain ar ôl y rhyfel. Mae Lenny a Miriam Lynskey yn gleifion yn y byd rhyfedd, caeedig hwn, y ddau’n gaeth i’r dicáu sy’n eu lladd yn araf; mae bywyd, serch hynny’n dal i ymladd at yr wyneb. 

The Sport of Kings gan C.E. Morgan - Stori am gyfoeth a thlodi, hiliaeth a dicter, mae The Sport of Kings yn bortread diwyro o fywydau dan gysgod caethwasiaeth. 

Caiff y teulu Forge, llinach rymus o Kentucky, eu diffinio gan yr angen i lwyddo. Mae dyfodiad gwas stabl du, ifanc, yn gatalydd i drais claddedig y gorffennol ac angerdd a thrachwant y presennol.  

Mae First Love gan Gwendoline Riley yn ddatgladdiad ôl-syllol o fywyd a phriodas, ble mae Neve, gwraig yng nghanol ei 30au, yn tynnu darnau o ddigwyddiad the wedi ei harwain at gyfaddawd llonydd anesmwyth y presennol. Mae Edwyn, ei gŵr hŷn, yn oriog wrth i Neve dadansoddi’r penderfyniadau y mae hi wedi gwneud a mythau digyffro rhyddid. 

Mae Do Not Say We Have Nothing gan Madeleine Thien yn epig o ran uchelgais ac arddull, gan ddilyn bywyd tri o gerddorion rhyfeddol Tsieineaidd o gychwyn y Weriniaeth Boblogaidd yn 1949 hyd at y presennol.

Trwy gydol hyn oll, mae eu cariad at gerddoriaeth yn ysbrydoli ac yn aflonyddu ar y tri wrth iddyn nhw oddef newidiadau enfawr a gwyllt yng nghymdeithas a gwleidyddiaeth Tsieina.