The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction shortlist 2019

The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is a prestigious literary award that awards 'writing of exceptional quality which is set in the past.' It was founded in 2009 and is open to "books first published in the previous year in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth".
Photo: Walter Scott Prize

Here is their shortlist for 2019, along with what the judges felt about the book.

Set in the 1950s, this book is about Irene Bobs who with her husband and a navigator, embarks upon the Redex Trial, a race across the continent. The judges said this book was "so atmospheric that you can smell the burning tyres of the racing cars and sniff the dry eucalyptus leaves"

Photo: Faber & Faber

Starting in 1938, the book tells the story of Phyllis Forrester, who accidentally confesses something on returning to England that changes her life forever. The judges praised the book and said, "Like the best historical fiction, it illuminates a sliver of history and how it impacts on ordinary people."

Photo: Penguin

This book is set in the 15th century Somerset, Oakham. A dead body is found and the local priest, who was privy to the man's confessions, tries to find out if it was suicide or murder. "To be transported immediately into calf deep mud, pitted with hoof marks, to a rural village marinated in poverty, superstition, and rough Catholicism, and to believe you are truly in an isolated village in 1491, is the feat achieved by Samantha Harvey," marveled the judges.

Photo: Vintage

The book follows a 14-year-old boy, Nathaniel and his sister, Rachel, who have been abandoned by their parents and left in the care of someone called The Moth. The judges claim, "Without doubt, Warlightis Michael Ondaatje’s greatest novel since The English Patient. It never lets the reader go and will stay in memory."
Photo: Jonathan Cape

The book tells the tale of Walker, a D-Day veteran with PTSD who can't return home and is trying to build a new life. The judges believe that the book, "defies conventional literary boundaries but is a moving, memorable and wholly original work of writing."

Photo: Picador