Rachel Cusk wins Goldsmiths prize for novel ‘that turns the world inside out’

Rachel Cusk has won the 2024 Goldsmiths prize for her 12th novel Parade, described as “ferociously illuminating” by judge Sara Baume.

Cusk was announced as the winner of the £10,000 prize, which recognises “mould-breaking” fiction, at a ceremony in London’s Foyles bookshop on Wednesday.

“Examining the life of the artist and the composition of the self, Rachel Cusk’s Parade exposes the power and limitations of our alternate selves,” said the chair of judges, Goldsmiths lecturer Abigail Shinn. “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.”

Parade comprises the stories of various artists, all called G. One of the Gs – based on the German artist Georg Baselitz – paints upside down; another is a woman with a “wild” past who is now unhappily married.

Cusk “pulls off a brilliant, stark and unsettling feat”, wrote Kate Kellaway in her Observer review. “While Cusk’s painter concentrates on painting the world upside down, Cusk keeps turning it inside out.”

This year marked Cusk’s fourth nomination for the prize, having previously been shortlisted for each of the novels in her Outline trilogy. As well as fiction, the British author has also written several works of non-fiction, most notably A Life’s Work – a memoir about motherhood – and Aftermath, about her marriage and divorce.

“Every sentence in Parade seems to grapple with an idea,” said Spill Simmer Falter Wither author Baume. “People die, perspective shifts, scenery changes, and yet there remains a clear, sharp line of thought that holds the reader.

The books shortlisted alongside Parade for this year’s prize were All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles, Tell by Jonathan Buckley, Choice by Neel Mukherjee, Spent Light by Lara Pawson, and Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking by Han Smith.

Joining Shinn and Baume on the judging panel were writer and film-maker Xiaolu Guo and journalist Lola Seaton.

The prize was open to novels published between 1 November 2023 and 31 October 2024, written in English by citizens of the UK or Ireland, or authors who have been resident in either country for three years and have their book published there. Previous winners of the prize, which is run in association with the New Statesman, include Eimear McBride, Ali Smith and Isabel Waidner. In 2023, Benjamin Myers won for his novel Cuddy.