SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2025 WINGATE PRIZE
The judges of the Wingate Literary Prize 2025 are delighted to announce their shortlist of six books, which collectively reflect the reach of Jewishness and Jewish life.
Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Wildfire)
Cold Crematorium by József Debreczeni, trans. Paul Olchvary (Jonathan Cape) Time’s Echo by Jeremy Eichler (Faber)
Eight Bright Lights by Sara Gibbs (Headline)
Elena: A Hand Made Life by Miriam Gold (Jonathan Cape)
Lublin by Manya Wilkinson (And Other Stories)
The judges commented:
‘Whittling down a strong longlist to six is never an easy task — not least when judges are considering both fiction and non-fiction. But we are all thrilled with this shortlist, which best answers the aim of the prize: to convey the idea of Jewishness to the general reader in works of the highest literary merit. From contemporary fiction to cultural history to illustrated memoir, this year’s shortlist showcases the range of the Wingate Prize.’
Now in its 48th year, the annual prize, worth £4,000 is awarded to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to convey the idea of Jewishness to the general reader.
The Jewish Literary Foundation will be hosting an online event for the shortlisted authors at 7pm on Tuesday 11 February.
The winner will be announced on Saturday 8 March at Kings Place as part of Jewish Book Week, thanks to our partnership with the Jewish Literary Foundation. More info can be found here.
Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Wildfire)
“Do you want to hear a story with a terrible ending?” is the irresistible opening line of this gossipy and hilarious novel about a Jewish family and their money. Carl Fletcher, the paterfamilias is an empty shell of man since a brutalising ordeal some 40 years ago. His now adult children – still kidnappably rich – variously employ anxiety, addiction, and avoidance as they scrabble messily and entertainingly for safety.
Cold Crematorium by József Debreczeni, trans. Paul Olchvary (Jonathan Cape) The Hungarian-Jewish journalist and poet József Debreczeni (1905-78) arrived at Auschwitz in 1944 and wrote this account of his experiences soon after the war’s end, which lends Cold Crematorium an extraordinary immediacy. In meticulous prose Debreczeni gradually descends the reader into hell, in the process laying bare the vast scale and unrelenting horror of the Auschwitz camp network. At last published in English translation, this book assumes especial importance at a time when the last Holocaust survivors are leaving us.
Time’s Echo by Jeremy Eichler (Faber)
In Time’s Echo, Eichler demonstrates how music acts as a vivid witness to history and to the trauma of the Holocaust. Completely gripping as well as brilliantly researched, it is a masterful synthesis of analysis and storytelling. The author’s incisive writing sheds new light on the work of Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Benjamin Britten and positions them strikingly in the mosaic of postwar memory-making.
Eight Bright Lights by Sara Gibbs (Headline)
A sparky romantic comedy about three women navigating life-changing moments in the lead-up to a festive wedding. Hannah confronts her estranged father’s legacy in Tel Aviv, Rachel balances wedding plans while unearthing a family secret, and Ella fights to save her career as a wedding planner. Getting to happily ever after might just take a miracle. With a deft hand, Gibbs interlaces their stories, combining wit and a nuanced exploration of personal and political struggles to craft a heartwarming and compelling narrative.
Elena: A Hand Made Life by Miriam Gold (Jonathan Cape)
Like its hero, this book is understated and guileless. Elena was born in 1919 in Kharkhiv. She lived a rich and full life as a GP in Northern England. Her hands were never still. She regarded herself as quite unremarkable although she was far from that. Miriam Gold tells her grandmother’s story through simple language and evocative, joyously varied multimedia artwork.
Lublin by Manya Wilkinson (And Other Stories)
On the surface, Manya Wilkinson’s Lublin looks like a simple coming-of-age novel as Elya, Ziv and Kiva set off from their village towards Lublin with a suitcase full of brushes to sell. Their adventures are both heartwarming and dark, absolutely their own but also stitched into a tapestry of persecution and survival. The traditions of Yiddish narrative combine with absolutely modern techniques to create a pure, compelling, original book.
This year’s judging panel is comprised of chair, Erica Wagner, Keiron Pim, Alice Sherwood and Rabbi Zahavit Shalev.
Press information: Anna Pallai anna@ampliterary.co.uk / 07971 496 227 Follow the Wingate Literary Prize on socials.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
Keiron Pim is the author of two biographies, Endless Flight: the Life of Joseph Roth (Granta, 2022) and Jumpin’ Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock’n’Roll Underworld (Jonathan Cape, 2016). He has taught non-fiction writing at the University of East Anglia and the National Centre for Writing, and written for the Guardian, Daily Telegraph and London Review of Books. He lives in north Norfolk with his wife and three daughters.
Rabbi Zahavit Shalev is a rabbi at New North London Synagogue. She was ordained by Leo Baeck College in 2019 and wrote her rabbinic thesis on sleep. Reading and sleeping are both equally important to her.
Alice Sherwood is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at The Policy Institute at King’s College London and author of the award-wining Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture (Harper Collins, 2022). She has served as a trustee of the London Library and the Hay Festival Foundation. She lives in London and Wales.
Erica Wagner’s latest book is Mary and Mr Eliot: A Sort Of Love Story. She was the literary editor of the London Times for seventeen years and is a contributing writer
for the New Statesman and consulting literary editor for Harper’s Bazaar; she is on the Board of Directors of Creatd, Inc. She is the author of Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge, winner of the Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writer’s Award; her other books are Ariel’s Gift, Seizure, Gravity and she is the editor of First Light, a celebration of the work of Alan Garner. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.
The Wingate Literary Prize was established in 1977 by the late Harold Hyam Wingate. The winner receives £4,000.
The Harold Hyam Wingate Charitable Foundation is a private grant-giving institution, established over forty years ago.
The Jewish Literary Foundation works to spread awareness, recognition and enjoyment of the best in ideas and great Jewish writing to as wide an audience as possible, including the annual Jewish Book Week festival, an emerging writers programme, a schools’ programme, a translation prize, year-round events and a free digital platform with 1,000 hours of video content.