‘She wished to study the unremarked beauty of modern things, of telephones, aeroplanes, computer screens and electric lights, of television, cars and underground transportation. There had to be in the world of mechanical efficiency some mystery of transaction, the summoning of remote meanings, an extra dimension – supernatural, sure. There had to be a lost sublimity, of something once strange, now familiar, tame.’ ‘We must talk, Alice Black, about this world of modern things. This buzzing world.’ Alice is entranced by the aesthetics of technology and, in every aeroplane flight, every Xerox machine, every neon sign, sees the poetry of modernity. Mr Sakamoto, a survivor of the atomic bomb, is an expert on Alexander Graham Bell. Like Alice, he is culturally and geographically displaced. The pair forge an unlikely friendship as Mr Sakamoto regales Alice with stories of twentieth-century invention. His own knowledge begins to inform her writing, and these two solitary beings become a mutual support for each other a long way from home. This novel from prize-winning author Gail Jones is distinguished in its honesty and intelligence. From the boundlessness of space walking to the frustrating constrictions of one person’s daily existence, DREAMS OF SPEAKING paints with grace and skill the experience of needing to belong despite wanting to be alone.
Hamnet
An American Marriage - 2019 Winner
Home Fire - 2018 Winner
The Power - 2017 Winner
The Glorious Heresies - 2016 Winner
How to be both - 2015 Winner
A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing - 2014 Winner
May We Be Forgiven - 2013 Winner
The Song of Achilles - 2012 Winner
The Tiger's Wife - 2011 Winner
The Lacuna - 2010 Winner
Home - 2009 Winner
The Road Home - 2008 Winner
Half of a Yellow Sun - 2007 Winner
On Beauty - 2006 Winner
We Need to Talk About Kevin - 2005 Winner
Small Island - 2004 Winner
Property - 2003 Winner
Bel Canto - 2002 Winner
The Idea of Perfection - 2001 Winner
When I Lived in Modern Times - 2000 Winner
A Crime in the Neighborhood - 1999 Winner
Larry’s Party - 1998 Winner
Fugitive Pieces - 1997 Winner
A Spell of Winter - 1996 Winner
VOTE
Vote for your favourite #WomensPrize winner
Cast your vote for your favourite #ReadingWomen book and decide who will be our Winner of Winners in our 25th year.
Sign up to the Women's Prize for Fiction newsletter and win all 25 Prize winning books, including our 2020 winner Hamnet.
You'll be the first to hear about exciting author events and our latest news, and you can unsubscribe at any time.