The longlist for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction has been announced.

Kate Williams, Chair of the judging panel, praised all 16 longlisted titles for being ‘brilliant stories that sweep you into another world’. ‘Each of them have been a privilege to read, and they have taken us into places a million miles from each other, exploring the lives of women and men in so many different but utterly compelling ways,’ she said.

The longlisted titles are:

• The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
• Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton
• My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
• The Pisces by Melissa Broder
• Milkman by Anna Burns
• Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
• Ordinary People by Diana Evans
• Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
• Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li
• Bottled Goods by Sophie van Llewyn
• Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
• Praise Songs for the Butterflies by Bernice L. McFadden
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
• Normal People by Sally Rooney

The Women’s Prize for Fiction celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze known as a ‘Bessie’, created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven. Both are anonymously endowed.

The 2019 shortlist of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction will be announced on Monday 29 April, with the winner to be awarded on Wednesday 5 June. Find out more about the prize here.