Opening pages – Bath Novel Award 2024 shortlist

A View of the Open Sky

by Elisa Oh

Dear Mr. M. Patten, Your audacity arouses both revulsion and a grudging kind of admiration in my breast.

Dance of the Mayflies

by Ben Reeves

The silver car tumbles end-over-end three times, skrump skrump skrump, before resting on its roof at the crossroads.

Lagan & Derelict

by Jess Worsdale

The city is an island. Beneath the steady beating of the seagull’s tired wings, Dublin huffs its stale breath upwards, sun-flayed skin of tower blocks humming in the late October heat.

My Beautiful Boy

by Elly James

I catch Luke only in glimpses, weaving through the Holkham pines, a flicker of red rugby shirt and that hair, still the brightest blond.