We’re delighted to say that Claire North has been shortlisted for the Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer of the Year Award for her novel THE END OF THE DAY (UK|US|ANZ)!

The prize honours a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry by a British or Irish author aged between 18 and 35, and Claire is one of five authors shortlisted for the award.

Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times literary editor and one of the judges on the panel, said that “The fact that the judges decided to nominate five instead of the usual four authors speaks volumes about the strength of this year’s shortlist – diverse, adventurous, immensely mature and confident”.

The shortlist was announced in the Sunday Times yesterday, with THE END OF THE DAY being described by the paper as:

‘Funny, ambitious, immensely humane and full of philosophical panache’

The shortlist was also discussed on Radio 4’s Open Book show yesterday, with judge Lucy Hughes-Hallett saying about THE END OF THE DAY: 

“This is a book which is busting out with invention…it’s extraordinary, and its premise is wonderfully mad. The protagonist is the Harbinger of Death, but actually this harbinger is a sort of sweaty-handed young man, making the best of a rather weird job and getting a bit flustered about it. That combination of very downbeat humour and very grand visions of the end of the world are so at once wildly impressive and deliciously ordinary”

You can hear from all the authors shortlisted at a special event on Tuesday 28th November at Waterstones, Trafalgar Square. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the London Library on 7th December.

Please join us in congratulating Claire North on Twitter!