Rachel Cusk wins the Goldsmiths Prize for ‘Parade’

Rachel Cusk’s novel “Parade” has won the Goldsmiths Prize.

The acclaimed British writer’s 12th novel was awarded the £10,000 (€12,000) prize at a ceremony at Foyles bookshop in London.

“Parade” is an unconventional book that follows multiple artists, all referred to as only “G”, as their lives gracefully intersect and allows Cusk to offer “an enigmatic and thought-provoking meditation on art, gender and the complexities of selfhood.”

Chair of judges, Dr Abigail Shinn said the novel “exposes the power and limitations of our alternate selves. Probing the limits of the novel form and pushing back against convention, this is a work that resets our understanding of what the long form makes possible.”

Fellow judge Sara Baume said: “Every sentence in ‘Parade’ seems to grapple with an idea. People die, perspective shifts, scenery changes, and yet there remains a clear, sharp line of thought that holds the reader.”

“In effortlessly beautiful prose Cusk challenges the conventions of the novel form as well as addressing the relationship between literature and visual art, and of how each can exist alongside the ordinariness of life. ’Parade’ is a ferociously illuminating novel that embraces the exquisite cruelty of the world at this present moment,” Baume continued.

This is Cusk’s fourth nomination for the annual Goldsmiths Prize, which was founded in 2013. She was nominated for each of the books in her ‘Outline’ trilogy, released in 2014, 2016 and 2018 respectively.

Cusk, 57, published her first novel “Saving Agnes” in 1993, for which she won the Whitbread First Novel Award. She has since published a total of 12 novels, five non-fiction works and a play. Cusk is a Guggenheim fellow and has longlisted twice for the Booker Prize.

The five other nominees for this year’s prize were: Mark Bowles for “All My Precious Madness”; Jonathan Buckley for “Tell”; Neel Mukherjee for “Choice”; Lara Pawson for “Spent Light”; and Han Smith for “Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking”.

Last year’s winner was Benjamin Myers for his novel “Cuddy” which retold the story of hermit St Cuthbert through mixed mediums of poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts. Previous winners include Lucy Ellmann, Ali Smith and Eimear McBride.