Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking, the “unforgettable” (Ruby Cowling) debut novel by Han Smith has been shortlisted for the 2024 Goldsmiths Prize. The winner will be announced on 6 November and you can find the full shortlist here. Congratulations, Han!

In a review, judge Abigail Shinn writes:

“Composed as a series of portraits, some fragmentary, all multi-faceted and allusory, Smith’s novel is a hallucinatory window into what it means to excavate the past in a world committed to its erasure.

At once a poignant coming of age story and an exploration of how language is shaped by ideology, Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking is tender and merciless in its slanting look at the history of state violence and its unacknowledged but profound effects on individuals and communities.

An important reminder that the stories we tell can serve as propaganda and as powerful works of resistance, Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking, demonstrates how the novel can reflect and resist the double speak of our own time.”

Read more in The Guardian here.

Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking is out now. Grab your copy here or, better, via your local bookshop or Bookshop.org.

Follow Han on Twitter @Han_Smiff.