Han Smith, whose “ambitious” (A K Blakemore) debut novel Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking has been shortlisted for the 2024 Goldsmiths Prize, has been interviewed by The New Statesman.

In the interview, which you can read in full here, Han discusses innovative writing, her inspirations, language, her central character ‘the almost daughter’ and more.

The winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2024 will be announced on 6th November and you can find the full shortlist here. Congratulations, Han!

The almost daughter is almost normal, because she knows how to know and also not know.

She knows and does not know, for instance, about the barracks by the athletics field, and about the lonely woman she visits each week. She knows—almost—about ghosts, and their ghosts, and she knows not to have questions about them. She knows to focus on being a woman: on training her body and dreaming only of escape.

Then, the almost daughter meets Oksana. Oksana is not even almost normal, and the questions she has are not normal at all.

Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking is a story of seeing and part-seeing, of silence and speaking out, of conformation and confrontation, by an exhilarating new voice in fiction.

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.