Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2021 longlist announced

The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2021 was announced on April 9, 2021. The longlist consists of 12 books that "range across place and time, from counterfactual fiction to apocalyptic visions of climate breakdown. These 12 novels demonstrate that politics is not just a question of the intellect, but of the imagination too". The shortlists for the prize will be announced by end of May and the winners will be declared around George Orwell’s birthday on June 25, 2021.

Checkout this list of the finest Political Fictions you should read in 2021:

(Photo: Orwell Prize/ Twitter)

Monique Roffey's 'The Mermaid of Black Conch' is set on an imaginary Caribbean village Black Conch in 1976. The story follows fisherman David who unexpectedly attracts Aycayia, a cursed mermaid, with his song. The book won the 2020 Costa Novel Award and Costa Book of the Year 2020.

Photo: Peepal Tree Press

Douglas Stuart's heart-wrecking debut novel 'Shuggie Bain' won the Booker Prize 2020. Set in 1980s Glasgow, the book explores themes of love, courage and addiction and follows the story of the central character Shuggie Bain, a young boy, as he struggles through poverty while looking after an alcoholic parent.

Photo: Picador

Colum McCann's novel 'Apeirogon' is a story of two men-- Rami Elhanan an Israeli and Bassam Aramin a Palestinian, both of whom have lost their young daughters. They live nearby, but their worlds are polls apart and soon they become best of friends. The book was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.

Photo: Bloomsbury Publishing

'Restless, ambitious Ilyas was stolen from his parents by the Schutzruppe askari, the German colonial troops; after years away, he returns to his village to find his parents gone, and his sister Afiya given away,' reads the book's blurb.

Photo: Bloomsbury Publishing

'A Lover’s Discourse' by Xialou Guo is a love story told through the conversations between two lovers. The story follows a Chinese woman, who moves from Beijing to London during Brexit. At a time when she is Lonely in a Britain, a place becoming hostile to foreigners, she meets and falls in love with a landscape architect.

Photo: Black Cat

The story is about two families, who are strangers to each other, and what happens when they are forced together on a long weekend gone wrong.

Photo: Bloomsbury Publishing

Curtis Sittenfield's 'Rodham' is a fictional reimagining of what could have happened if Hillary Rodham had turned down the proposal to marry Bill Clinton.

Photo: Doubleday

Ali Smith's 'Summer' is the last book of her popular Seasonal quartet and it was also longlisted for the Women's Prize 2021.

Photo: Hamish Hamilton

''Summerwater' is a devastating story told over twenty-four hours in the Scottish highlands, and a searing exploration of our capacity for both kinship and cruelty in these divided times,' reads the book's blurb.

Photo: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

''The Death of Vivek Oji' is a novel of family and friendship that challenges expectations—a dramatic story of loss and transcendence that will move every reader,' reads the book's blurb.

Photo: Faber & Faber

Set in America, 'Weather' by Jenny Offill is narrated by Lizzie, a college librarian. Set during and after Donald Trump's administrative years, it tells the story of Lizzie's family life and her concerns regarding the climate change. The book was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020.

Photo: Granta Books

Brit Bennett's historical fiction novel 'The Vanishing Half' is a multi-generational family sage. Set from 1940s to 1990s, the story revolves around identical twin sisters Desiree and Stella Vignes.

Photo: Dialogue Books