Compelling stories' on longlist for Women's prize for fiction

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Miranda July and Elizabeth Strout are among the writers longlisted for the 30th Women's prize for fiction.

- Ella Creamer

Karen Jennings and Laila Lalami are also on the list of 16 writers now in contention for the £30,000 prize.

Kit de Waal, chair of the judging panel said: "There were many lively debates over the final 16 books and it was a very close-run thing, but the list we have revealed today is overflowing with compelling stories and writing that demonstrates passion, wit and empathy."

Adichie was chosen for her much-anticipated fourth novel, Dream Count, which tells the interlocking stories of four women navigating love, friendship, trauma, and social pressures to marry and have children.

The Nigerian novelist won the prize in 2007 for Half of a Yellow Sun, which was also voted the "winner of winners" in 2020. Her other two novels, Purple Hibiscus and Americanah, were shortlisted in 2004 and 2014.

Social expectations of women are also explored in July's second novel