When the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024 was announced, I selected two books, which sounded interesting. I also picked a few prospects from the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction 2024 longlist. How did it go?

How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet.

I’ve never read anything about the Rastafarian movement and what it means to grow up in a Rastafarian family. Hence, Sinclair’s memory was an interesting peek into unknown territory. Unfortunately, the overarching story is well-known. A weak patriartric father struggles to find his place in life. The less success he has controlling his circumstances, the more he tries to control and dominate his family. All three children are exceedingly gifted and manage eventually to make a life for themselves escaping the physical and mental abuse from their father.

The memoir is beautifully written with a straight-forward linear narrative. I think it would have benefitted from tighter editing, but overall it was an impactful and interesting story.

Title: How to say Babylon [2023]
Author: Safiya Sinclair
Format: Audiobook, narrated by Safiya Sinclair 
Genre: Memoir 

Code Dependent reminded me of another nonfiction book I read this year, Number Go Up (about cryptocurrency). It seems that every new technology we invent to create progress and make aspects of our lives easier will inevitably be misused in a myriad of creative ways. Are people who want to abuse, cheat and do criminal activity more creative than the rest of the population?

I found Code Dependent interesting, but not as good as I’d hoped for. First and foremost, let’s get this clear: AI isn’t currently able to think for itself. It certainly has become a lot more advanced over the years, but it doesn’t do things on its own accord. It is people, who develop AI. And it is people who decide how, where and when to apply it.

If an AI app is causing food delivery drivers to be paid terrible rates in an intransparent fashion, the reason is that managers of the company decided, it is ok to treat drivers like that. And if AI shows certain biases in legal cases, it is because it has been trained on cases judged by humans and humans are unfortunately biased.

It seems the author blames AI for all the terrible things, we humans decide to do. Furthermore, the book appears biased against AI. In my opinion, there are many positive applications as well.

In one chapter, the author talks about employees, who have to go through the despicable texts and pictures, which are sometimes posted on social media. It is mentioned – as a negative thing – that the material picked out by humans is used to train AI, so people won’t have to do this in the future. She adds, that jobs like these cause trauma and mental health issues. So isn’t it a good thing, if AI can do jobs like this in the future? (clearly it would be better if people stopped posting despicable material on social media, but that is another story).

On balance, I would recommend reading this book, because it includes a lot of interesting information and some rather horrific examples of how AI can be misused. However, I am concerned the book provides a biased picture of AI, focusing on all the negative ways it can be applied.

I am not denying that a lot more regulation is required for use of AI. But when it comes to the sole question of guilt, it isn’t AI who is the bad guy. It isn’t even the regulator’s fault for not keeping up. The real culprits are the people who decide to use AI in highly unethical ways.

Title: Code Dependent [2024]
Author: Madhumita Murgia
Format: Audiobook, narrated by Madhumita Murgia 
Genre: Nonfiction

Brotherless Night is a fictional account of the early years of Sri Lanka’s civil war, seen through the eyes of a Sashi, a young Tamil girl studying to become a doctor. Two of Sashi’s brothers become involved in the Tamil Tigers and Sashi herself takes up work on a medical clinic run by the Tigers.

The novel is written in a straightforward fashion and reads like a memoir. I found it a gripping story, which provided a nuanced perspective on the civil war, where atrocities were committed on all sides, including the Sinhalese, the Tamils and the Indians. Sashi finds she can’t support the actions of the Tigers or even those of her own brothers.

I thought the last part felt somewhat disjointed from the remaining storyline and my interest started to wane. In my opinion, the story came to a natural conclusion, when the protagonist left Sri Lanka and would have been stronger if it had wrapped up shortly thereafter. Also, the strong accent of the audiobook narrator may have added authenticity, but didn’t contribute to the enjoyment of the story. However, these are small niggles in an otherwise strong novel. If you want insight into Sri Lanka’s Civil War, I would highly recommend Brotherless Night and I certainly won’t be mad, if it ends up winning the Women’s Prize.

Title: Brotherless Night [2023] 
Author: V. V. Ganeshananthan
Format: Audiobook, narrated by Nadia Albina
Genre: Fiction

Enter Ghost is a novel I could appreciate rather than enjoy.

After ending an affair with a married man, the actress Sonia leaves London to visit her sister in Haifa. Having grown up in the UK, this is Sonia’s first trip back since the second intifada. Her sister Haneen, on the other hand, has made a life for herself in Haifa, commuting to Tel Aviv to teach at the university. While in Haifa, Sonia is persuaded to join a theatre group performing Hamlet in Arabic in the West Bank.

In many ways, Enter Ghost was the complete antithesis to Brotherless Night. Where the latter followed a simple linear structure, Enter Ghost utilised a vignetty style, jumping between timelines and locations. Brotherless Night‘s strong personal narrative, which evoked deep-felt empathy with the characters stood in sharp contrast to Enter Ghost, which kept me at a distance. I never felt a connection to any of the characters and didn’t even feel I got to know them particularly well. Sonia was rather uninteresting and unsympathetic. The group of actors were mostly spoiled, self-centred and overdramatic, which rarely appeals to me. On the other hand, the writing was accomplished. Whereas Brotherless Night should be read literally, you had to read between the lines in Enter Ghost. I got the feeling, that every minor scene and every single dialogue was put there to communicate a point or message from the author. And in the performance of Hamlet, many scenes got a specific meaning in the context of Palestine’s situation.

Of course, what Enter Ghost really has going for it, is the setting. The author describes daily life in Palestine with checkpoints, barriers, surveillance and ongoing unrest and uncertainty. None of this is accompanied by excessive melodrama. This is just what life is like.

Enter Ghost requires the reader to make an effort. To get the full pay-off, you need to be focused and pay attention to detail. Unfortunately, I may not have given it, the focus it deserved. So please judge for yourself. Lots of readers have loved it.

Title: Enter Ghost [2023] 
Author: Isabella Hammad 
Format: Audiobook, narrated by Nadia Albina
Genre: Fiction

My selection from the Women’s Prize 2024 was a mixed bag, but they all taught me something new, even Some People Need Killing, which I DNF’ed. As a bonus, I added three countries to my Reading Around the World challenge, Palestine (Enter Ghost), Jamaica (How to say Babylon) and Sri Lanka (Brotherless Night). The winners will be announced the 13th June.