CELEBRATING the best new books that illuminate our encounters with health, medicine and illness, and with a £30,000 cash prize at stake, the announcement of the Wellcome Book Prize 2018 shortlist was highly anticipated. The 2018 shortlist titles explore bereavement, loss and the fragility of life, consider medical innovations developed to escape death, and reflect on why we should talk more about dying.
The six shortlist titles
The shortlist was hand selected by a judging panel led by artist and writer Edmund de Waal OBE who was joined by Dr Hannah Critchlow, Bryony Gordon, Sumit Paul-Choudhury and Sophie Ratcliffe. Writer Edmund de Waal commented on behalf of the judging panel saying, “The demand of judging the Wellcome Book Prize is to find books that have to be read, books to press into people’s hands, books that start debates or deepen them, that move us profoundly, surprise and delight and perplex us, that bring the worlds of medicine and health into urgent public conversation: books that show us what it is to be human. These are six powerful books to read and share.”
Wellcome Book Prize Judging Panel
This year the list consists of one novel, one memoir, and for non-fiction novels. Of the six titles on the list, five are written by women and four are debuts. Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, the only novel on the list, explores fertility, family and the devastating effects of the sickle-cell disease in 1980s Nigeria. Mayhem: A memoir by Sigrid Rausing works upon her own experience to present a compelling case of the power of addiction and the impact this has on loved ones.
The six shortlist titles
The remaining titles, all non-fiction, trace the past, present, and future of scientific developments. The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris evokes the grisly world of Victorian surgery. The Vaccine Race by Meredith Wadman tells the story of the rubella vaccine breakthrough that has since protected hundreds of millions of people worldwide. To Be a Machine by Mark O’Connell brings the transhumanism movement and the aim of using technology to extend life and push the human body beyond its current limitations into question. The final book on the shortlist is With the End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix, a palliative care consultant, who writes about the need to approach death with more openness and clarity.
With compelling words and a scientific narrative, the Wellcome Book Prize 2018 shortlist titles effectively challenge how we think and feel about health.
by Lily Rimmer
The winner will be revealed at an evening ceremony on Monday April 30, at Wellcome Collection.
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