The shortlists of the 2024 Sunday Times Literary Awards have been announced today and The Bitterness of Olives by Andrew Brown features on the Fiction Prize shortlist.

Fiction Prize Criteria

The winner should be a novel of rare imagination and style, evocative, textured and a tale so compelling as to become an enduring landmark of contemporary fiction.

Judges:

Siphiwo Mahala
Dr Alma-Nelisha Cele
Michele Magwood

CHAIR OF JUDGES SIPHIWO MAHALA SAYS:

The judging panel approached the books entered for this year’s Fiction Prize with a keen interest to delve into a world of the unknown. In turn, we were introduced to a kaleidoscopic array of writing from both the seasoned and emerging writers alike. The result was a pleasantly edifying and exhilarating experience, as reading these novels was embarking on a journey punctuated with diverse themes, surprising and experimental narrative styles and boundless imagery. The wide range of settings, encompassing familiar and unfamiliar locations, bears testament to the universality of our stories and illustrate that our narratives transcend the realist preoccupations with the present moment. These five shortlisted novels, each in its own unique way, represent masterful works of rare, unfettered and powerful imagination. 

Here is the fiction shortlist in order of the author’s surname:

• Buried Treasure by Sven Axelrad (Umuzi)
• The Bitterness of Olives by Andrew Brown (Karavan Press)
• The Egg Dilemma by Morabo Morojele (Jacana)
• The Institute for Creative Dying by Jarred Thompson (Picador Africa)
• Mirage by David Ralph Viviers (Umuzi)

The Bitterness of Olives by Andrew Brown (Karavan Press)
Written before the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip on October 7, Brown’s latest novel is set against the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A retired detective in Tel Aviv and Palestinian doctor in Gaza with a shared past, must resolve their differences to investigate a murder. 
Judges said: A harrowing account of a moment of strife, beautifully told. The author, endowed with vivid imagination coupled with acumen and erudition, deftly immerses the reader in a brutal and bewildering landscape. A wholly sublime narrative, this novel is contemporaneous, daring, complex and aesthetically pleasing.

Read the full press release here: Sunday Times