British Academy Book Prize 2025 | Sophie Harman’s reading recommendations
Posted by Sophie Harman
Today’s reading recommendations come from Sophie Harman, whose book Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women's Health is nominated for this year’s British Academy Book Prize.
Meet all of the shortlisted authors at the British Academy Book Prize shortlist event on Tuesday 21 October at 6 p.m. at the British Academy and online. Tickets are free, but booking is essential – find out more here.
Djinns by Fatma Aydemir, translated by Jon Cho-Polizzi
I read this book last year and have been pressing it into everyone’s hands since. A patriarch finally fulfils his dream of building a home in Turkey for his family in Germany to return to and dies on receipt of keys. What unravels is the story of a family, with characters to love (I’ve taught a lot of Peri’s), and the ghosts of Kurdish history. I am a sucker for family drama that revolves around global politics, driven by a multi-character narrative (Aydemir is up there with Marian Keyes, the Queen of the compulsive multi-character narrative – I challenge anyone who disagrees to a thumb war).
Winnie and Nelson by Jonny Steinberg
This book broke my heart. When Nelson Mandela died, I remember asking a colleague how I could convey the significance of his prison release in the Africa & International Politics seminar I was teaching that day: he told me you have to get the students to feel it. This book is both a destructive love story and the story of the brutality of apartheid told through one, albeit exceptional, family. It seemingly does the impossible, breaking the powerful mythology of both Winnie and Nelson to affect how the reader feels about them both.
Depletion: The Human Cost of Caring by Shirin M. Rai
Sick of It stands on the shoulders of some real giants of feminist political economy, and Shirin Rai is most definitely one of them. In her latest book, Rai doesn’t just explain how care work from childcare to commuting depletes women – that would be too easy – she offers a framework for how we can calculate that cost as a means of reorganizing our economies and how we live. Her argument appears is both bold and feasible. Rachel Reeves take note.
Sophie Harman is the author of Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women’s Health, published by Virago Press. See all the books on the British Academy Book Prize shortlist here.
