Climate Imagination Prize announces finalists including Madeleine Thein and Robbie Arnott | books

Madeleine Thein and Robbie Arnott are among the writers shortlisted for this year’s £10,000 Climate Fiction Prize.

Now, in its second year, the award celebrates novels that engage with the climate crisis through imaginative storytelling. This year’s shortlist spans a wide range of styles, from speculative fiction to reimagined mythology.

Thien’s The Book of Records follows a girl who escapes floods in near-future China with her father, arriving at a large migrant complex called the Sea. The book traces the human costs of the climate crisis and social injustice, weaving together personal and historical journeys across generations in what Guardian reviewer Zane Brooks described as “a rich and beautiful novel.”

Robbie Arnott has been shortlisted for Dusk, about twins who join the hunt for a puma in the Tasmanian wilderness, which James Bradley described in a review for The Guardian as an “extremely beautiful and deeply felt” novel.

Also competing for the award is “The Tiger’s Share,” the second novel by Indian author Keshava Guha, which is a state-of-the-nation story about sibling rivalry. It is located in heavily polluted Delhi.

Susannah Cowan has been shortlisted for Awake in the Floating City. This debut is about An artist and a 130-year-old woman who cares for her are some of the last people remaining in the future flood-swept city of San Francisco.

Other novels on the list address the intersection of climate change and competing global crises. Endling, by Maria Riva, argues that ecological collapse coincides with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The novel was praised in The Guardian as “deft and formally inventive”, and was also longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Elsewhere, Helen Phillips’ sixth book, Hum, is set in a near future where robots called “hums” take over many jobs, the air is toxic and the tap water is polluted. Daisy Hildyard described him in The Guardian as “charming and terrifying”.

The jury for this year’s award includes Arifa Akbar, chief theater critic at The Guardian, novelists Kate de Waal and Jesse Greengrass, climate scientist Frederic Otto, and broadcaster Simon Savage.

The longlisted works that did not make it to the shortlist are Every Version of You by Grace Chan, Helm by Sarah Hall, Albion by Anna Hope, The Price of Everything by John McGurran, Jues by Tim Winton, and Sunbirth by Anne Yeo.

The award is funded by Climate Spring, which also funds and advises on climate-related film and television projects.

Lucy Stone, founder and executive director of Climate Spring, said the nominated novels ranged from “intimate family stories to wide-ranging political and historical narratives.” “These novels move seamlessly across genres and settings while grappling with some of the defining themes of our time—power, accountability, community, and resilience in a changing world.”

The award was launched in June 2024 at the Hay Literary Festival, and the first winner was the novel My Father Dari and Thus He Roared.

To be eligible for this year’s award, books must have been published in the UK between 1 September 2024 and 31 August 2025. The winner will be announced on 27 May.