Ruth Ozeki wins the Women’s Prize for Fiction for 2022!

Australian readers have woken up to the news that American author Ruth Ozeki has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction for 2022, for her novel The Book of Form and Emptiness. A staff favourite here at Booktopia, the novel explores the life of a grieving man named Benny who seeks solace in a public library after inanimate objects begin to speak to him.

Ruth Ozeki (Photo by Danielle Tait).

The awards ceremony was held in Bedford Square Gardens, London, and hosted by the Women’s Prize Founder Director, Kate Mosse, with the main award presented by 2022 Chair of Judges, Mary Ann Sieghart.

Sieghart said of Ozeki’s win:

“In an extraordinary year for fiction written by women, and from an incredibly strong shortlist, we were thrilled to choose Ruth Ozeki’s The Book of Form and Emptiness, which stood out for its sparkling writing, warmth, intelligence, humour and poignancy. A celebration of the power of books and reading, it tackles big issues of life and death, and is a complete joy to read. Ruth Ozeki is a truly original and masterful storyteller.”

This is the first time that Ozeki, a novelist, film-maker and Zen Buddhist priest, has won the Women’s Prize. She will take home £30,000 in prize money along with the ‘Bessie’, a limited edition bronze figurine by the late artist Grizel Niven.

Congratulations to Ruth Ozeki, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022!

Find out more about the Women’s Prize here

The Book of Form and Emptiness

by Ruth Ozeki

If you let it - if you listen - a book could change your life.

After his father dies, Benny Oh finds he can hear objects talking- teapots, marbles and sharpened pencils, babbling in anger or distress. His mother, struggling to support their household alone, starts collecting things to give her comfort. Overwhelmed by the clamour of all the stuff, Benny seeks refuge in the beautiful silence of the public library.

There, the objects speak only in whispers...

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Olivia Fricot

Olivia Fricot (she/her) is Booktopia's Senior Content Producer and editor of the Booktopian blog. She has too many plants and not enough bookshelves, and you can usually find her reading, baking, or talking to said plants. She is pro-Oxford comma.

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