Reader’s guide: The opening lines of the six novels on the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist

The shortlist of the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction was announced on Wednesday, 3 April. The winner will be announced on June 12. The winning author will receive a cash prize of £30,000 and the “Bessie”, a bronze statuette created by the artist Grizel Niven.

The prize was established in 1996, and is awarded annually to the author of the best full-length novel of the year written in English and published in the UK. The judging panel for the 2025 Prize is chaired by author Kit de Waal. She is joined by novelist Diana Evans; author Bryony Gordon; magazine editor Deborah Joseph; and musician Amelia Warner.

Here are the six shortlisted novels and their opening lines:

Good Girl, Aria Aber

The train back to Berlin took seven hours, and the towel in my suitcase was still wet from my last swim in the lake, dampening the pages of my favorite books. I took the S-Bahn and then the U-Bahn home to Lipschitzallee and walked past the discount supermarket, the old pharmacy, and the Qurbani Bakery with the orange shop cat lounging outside its door. In our building’s elevator, an intimate odor assaulted my nostrils: urine mixed with ash. Hello, spider, I said, looking at the cobweb in the corner....

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