The 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist: A U.S. Reader's Guide

The 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction longlist is finally here! Known for years as the Orange Prize, this is my favorite literary prize, and I always greet its longlist with a look at how U.S. readers fare when trying to track down copies of all twenty books (see my U.S. Reader's Guides for 2013, 2012, & 2011.)

The One I've Already Read:

• The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (3 stars)

The Ones Available in the U.S. Now:

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
• MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
• The Bear by Claire Cameron
• Eleven Days by Lea Carpenter

• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
• The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner

• The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Ones Coming Soon to the U.S.:

• Reasons She Goes to the Woods by Deborah Kay Davies (September 9, 2014)
• A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride (September 9, 2014)
• All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld (April 15, 2014)

The Ones We Hope Make Their Way to the U.S. Soon:

• The Dogs of Littlefield by Suzanne Berne
• The Shadow of the Crescent Moon by Fatima Bhutto
• The Stranger Vine by M.J. Carter
• The Undertaking by Audrey Magee (not pictured)
• Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson

My thoughts:
This longlist is long. Neither The Luminaries nor The Goldfinch are surprises, but both are chunksters that help make this the longest longlist since 2010. It would be impossible for me to read 7500 pages before the shortlist announcement on April 7th, but I do hope to read the nineteen titles I haven't read before the winner is announced June 4th.

With two former winners (Suzanne Berne and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) vying with numerous literary heavyweights, plus several less established authors, this year's race will be a fascinating one to watch. I'm thrilled with the combination of expected titles and under-the-radar surprises.

I was able to get a copy of all of the titles coming soon to the U.S., as well as the five with no available U.S. publication dates, thanks to the Book Depository and Amazon's third-party sellers. While those make their way to me, I'm eager to dig in with the titles I currently have loaded on my Kindle (oh, e-galleys, I love you!) First up: I think I'll start with The Bear by Claire Cameron, which I meant to get to last month and didn't.

Now tell me: which title are you most excited to see on this year's longlist?

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