The Orwell Prize
THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION
The Story of the Forest has been shortlisted for the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction! The winners of the 2023 Orwell Prizes will be revealed at the Prize Ceremony in central London on 22nd June 2023.
Click here to find out more about The Orwell Prize.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2023
'Epic and marvellously entertaining... There's a furious energy to the novel, which constantly moves forward even as it looks sorrowfully back'
FINANCIAL TIMES
'Magnificent... I want to press a copy on everyone I know'
NIGELLA LAWSON
'Epic, magnificent, beautiful... I couldn't put it down'
PHILIPPA PERRY
'Jewel-like clarity... exceptional'
RICHARD COLES
'Exquisite writing [and] a triumphant, elegant ending'
MAIL ON SUNDAY
'An intelligent family saga... ambitious and moving and funny'
TESSA HADLEY
It's 1913 and a young, carefree and recklessly innocent girl, Mina, goes out into the forest on the edge of the Baltic sea and meets a gang of rowdy young men with revolution on their minds. It sounds like a fairy tale but it's life.
The adventure leads to flight, emigration and a new land, a new language and the pursuit of idealism or happiness - in Liverpool. But what of the stories from the old country; how do they shape and form the next generations who have heard the well-worn tales?
From the flour mills of Latvia to Liverpool suburbia to post-war Soho, The Story of the Forest is about myths and memory and about how families adapt in order to survive. It is a story full of the humour and wisdom we have come to relish from this wonderful writer.
