Clear by Carys Davies has won this year’s Ondaatje prize for writing that “best evokes the spirit of a place”.
The Welsh novelist’s third novel is set on a Scottish island during the Highland Clearances, and follows two men as they form an unlikely bond. On winning the £10,000 award, Davies gave particular thanks to the Faroese linguist Jakob Jakobsen, as his dictionary of the now-extinct Shetland language, first published in 1908, was an invaluable source when she was writing.
“According to the UN, one of the 6,700 languages spoken across the world is lost every two weeks,” Davies said. “I’m so delighted that this prize can celebrate how we experience the world through the words we use to perceive it.”
Davies was announced as winner of the award, which is run by the Royal Society of Literature (RSL), on Thursday evening at an event in London. The prize’s 2021 winner, Ruth Gilligan, chaired the judging panel alongside transgender activist and author Charlie Craggs and poet Roy McFarlane.
“Clear is a genuine masterpiece,” said Gilligan. Island life is “rendered in exquisite, craggy detail,” she added, yet the novel “also manages to be a universal reflection on the meaning of home, of belonging, of family”.
“At its finest, Clear is a love letter to the scorching power of language,” wrote Clare Clark in her Guardian review of Clear. She praised the way Davies “writes with amazing economy: in a few words she can summon worlds”.
Davies’ previous novels and short stories have garnered positive critical attention; she has won a number of prizes including the Frank O’Connor international short story award, the Wales book of the year fiction award and the RSL’s VS Pritchett short story prize.
Also on the shortlist for this year’s Ondaatje prize were The Catchers by Xan Brooks, No Small Thing by Orlaine McDonald, American Anthem by Kelly Michels, Night Train to Odesa by Jen Stout and Private Revolutions by Yuan Yang.
Previous winners of the prize have included Hisham Matar, Lea Ypi and Rory Stewart. Last year’s winner was Ian Penman for Fassbinder, a study of the late German film-maker.
Clear by Carys Davies (Granta Books, £9.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
