Six resonant novels exploring violence, belonging, and the power of collective voices
The Dublin Literary Award 2021 shortlist brings together novels that grapple with some of the most urgent moral and emotional questions of our time. These books examine migration, systemic violence, identity, and love, often through innovative structures that reflect the complexity of the worlds they describe. Each work insists on the human cost of political and social failure.
A defining feature of this list is its multiplicity of voices. From polyphonic narratives to fragmentary forms, these novels refuse a single perspective, instead offering layered accounts of history and experience. Trauma and tenderness coexist, revealing how individuals and communities carry both pain and hope across generations.
Together, these six books exemplify the global reach and ambition of contemporary literary fiction. They are emotionally immersive, formally daring, and deeply compassionate, inviting readers to listen closely to stories that demand attention and empathy.
Winner
Lost Children Archive
by Valeria Luiselli
Luiselli’s novel follows a family road trip across the American Southwest that gradually transforms into an inquiry into migration and displacement. Blending fiction, reportage, and archival material, the book reflects on how stories are recorded and erased. The children’s perspectives bring both innocence and clarity. The narrative grows increasingly urgent as borders harden. Language itself becomes a moral terrain. A formally inventive and deeply humane novel.
3.80
Literary Fiction
Urgent
Reflective
Compassionate
Shortlisted
The Nickel Boys
by Colson Whitehead
Inspired by real events, Whitehead’s novel exposes abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow–era Florida. The narrative is restrained, allowing horror to emerge through implication. Friendship offers brief refuge amid systemic cruelty. The prose is spare and devastating. The novel interrogates American myths of justice and progress. A searing indictment of racial violence.
4.25
Literary Fiction
Historical Fiction
Grim
Powerful
Unflinching
Shortlisted
Apeirogon
by Colum McCann
This ambitious novel centres on the friendship between two fathers — one Israeli, one Palestinian — bound by shared loss. Structured in hundreds of brief sections, the book mirrors the many-sided nature of conflict. McCann weaves history, myth, and testimony into a mosaic of voices. Grief becomes a force for connection rather than division. The prose is lyrical and searching. A powerful meditation on empathy and reconciliation.
4.25
Literary Fiction
Reflective
Hopeful
Lyrical
Shortlisted
Girl, Woman, Other
by Bernardine Evaristo
Evaristo’s novel brings together the lives of twelve mostly Black British women across generations. Written in a fluid, punctuation-light style, the book pulses with energy and warmth. It explores identity, gender, race, and creativity with humour and generosity. Individual stories intersect in surprising ways. The novel celebrates complexity without smoothing over conflict. Joyful, inclusive, and quietly radical.
4.26
Literary Fiction
Energising
Joyful
Affirming
Shortlisted
Hurricane Season
by Fernanda Melchor
Set in a rural Mexican town, Hurricane Season spirals outward from a brutal murder. Melchor’s relentless prose traps the reader inside cycles of violence, misogyny, and despair. The narrative voice is breathless and unyielding. Social inequality permeates every relationship. There is no escape from the brutality depicted. A devastating, uncompromising novel.
4.04
Literary Fiction
Oppressive
Furious
Relentless
Shortlisted
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
by Ocean Vuong
Written as a letter from a son to his mother, this novel explores family, queerness, and the legacy of war. Vuong’s prose is poetic and intimate, attentive to beauty and pain. Memory unfolds nonlinearly, shaped by language and silence. Violence and tenderness sit side by side. The book examines what it means to speak when you have not been heard. A deeply affecting debut.
