See the full list of Waterstones Best Books of 2024 here

See the shortlist for the Saltire Awards here

You can tune into my conversation with Jim Naughtie and readers about The Mission House on November 3rd at 4pm. Here is the link

The Blackwell’s list is made up of nine books in three categories - fiction, non-fiction and children's. Clear joins Alan Hollinghurst's Our Evenings and Andrew O'Hagan's Caledonian Road on the fiction list. See the list here

See the full list of 25 fiction titles here

See the six books here

November 22nd-24th, Freemantle. I'll be talking about stories and novels over Zoom on Saturday November 23rd at 11am GMT. Programme and tickets here

I'm delighted Clear has been shortlisted for this alongwith books by Kaveh Akbar, Ferdia Lennon and David Nicholls. There's more here about The Readers Awards, which — uniquely in the UK —are curated by booksellers.

I'm thrilled that Clear is the winner of the Bookmark Festival 2024 Book of the Year. More here

See the longlist for the 2024 Saltire Awards here

See the longlist for the HWA Gold Crown Award by the HIstorical Writers' Association magazine Historia here

I'm looking forward very much to talking about Clear on Saturday September 28th at 3pm in Scotland's 'book town'. Tickets here

Charlotte Wood and I will be talking to Di Speirs about our latest novels, Stone Yard Devotional and Clear at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Friday August 16th at 12.45 pm. Tickets here

On Thursday July 25th I’ll be in conversation about Clear with Reny van der Kamp at the wonderful Athenaeum Bookshop in Amsterdam. Doors open at 5.30 PM, details here

See the full list of NPR editors’ favourite books of 2024 here

Clear joins 19 other books on this list from Amazon—see all the books here

The Irish Times recommends 15 new audiobooks for the summer, including Clear, read by the excellent Russ Bain. See the full list here (£)

Delighted to see Clear, along with Long Island by Colm Tóibín, James by Percival Everett and Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, in the category Four Works of Literary Fiction We Didn’t Want to End.

See the other categories here

Every month AudioFile magazine publishes its list of the month’s best audiobooks—so pleased to see Russ Bain’s beautiful reading of Clear in its picks for May:

‘Russ Bain flawlessly presents Carys Davies’s novel featuring three extraordinary, believable characters in 1840s Scotland.’

More here

Clear will be published this August in Germany as Ein Klarer Tag, in this beautiful edition from Luchterhand, translated by Eva Bonné.

I talked to Miwa Messer about Clear and other things for the Barnes & Noble Poured Over podcast - you can listen here

I talked to NPR's Scott Simon about Clear on Weekend Edition - listen here

I'll be in conversation about Clear at Topping's book shop in Edinburgh on May 8th at 7.30pm. Tickets here

On Sunday March 24th at 4pm I'll be talking to Johny Pitts about Clear on BBC Radio 4's Open Book. Details here

I’ll be in conversation at Hay on May 26th at 2.30 pm with Francis Spufford. We’ll be discussing Clear and Cahokia Jazz. Tickets here

I'm very much looking forward to this conversation on Friday May 24th at 6pm. It's a City of Literature event run by the National Centre For Writing and Norfolk and Norwich Festival, and we'll be talking about solitary landscapes and the longing for connection, even when words fail us. Tickets here.

Clear has been chosen by American booksellers for April's Indie Next List. You can see the list here

You can listen to Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 Book Club podcast about Clear here

Portobello Bookshop, Edinburgh: Tuesday March 5th

Foyles, London: Wednesday March 6th

Storysmith, Bristol: Wednesday March 13th

Topping, Bath: Thursday March 14th

Daunt, Marylebone, London: Friday March 15th

Oxford Literary Festival: Sunday March 17th

Main Street Trading, Melrose: Wednesday March 20th

Topping, St Andrew’s: Thursday March 21st

Read reviews of Clear and all the other books here

‘A deft and graceful yarn about language, love, and rebellion against the inhumane forces of history.’
Read the full review here

Clear has been picked by Zoe Ball for her BBC Radio 2 Book Club. More here

I'm delighted to see Clear on this list of books coming out this year. Read about all of them here (£)

'Perceptive and beautiful... This is divine.'

Read the full review here

I've reviewed Victoria Kielland's new novel My Men, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls, in The Guardian.

The Sunday Times' chief fiction critic Peter Kemp picks his best novels and stories about travel from the past 60 years (£).

Skios Michael Frayn
The Mission House Carys Davies
Hunters in the Dark Lawrence Osborne
The Two Faces of January Patricia Highsmith
Cross Channel Julian Barnes
The Mandelbaum Gate Muriel Spark
Bodily Harm Margaret Atwood
Golden HIll Francis Spufford
Foreign Affairs Alison Lurie
Haroun and the Sea of Stories Salman Rushdie

I'm delighted to say my new novel Clear will be coming out next spring from Granta in the UK and Scribner in the US - more details here in The Bookseller

I'll be in conversation with David Constantine and Sarah Harte on Tuesday April 18th at 7pm for the launch of the nineteenth Cork World Book Festival in Ireland. You can book for this and other events with Sarah Baume, Joseph O'Connor and more here

Sophie Raworth and Patrick Ness choose three books which ‘take on early colonialism on two different continents, in West by Carys Davies and Remembering Babylon by David Malouf respectively, and Patrick’s choice of Howard’s End by EM Forster.’

The piece aired on Tuesday March 14th at 16.30. It is available on BBC iPlayer here.

Andrew Holgate, who is stepping down after 23 years as literary editor of The Sunday Times, has picked his favourite books — I’m so delighted to see West among them.

The full list is here (£)

I’ll be in conversation online with the novelist, short story writer and poet, David Constantine, on Wednesday November 16th at 7pm. We’ll be talking about the passions that drive our work, and the principles we believe to be the foundations of great literature.

Full programme and tickets here

October 4: Jon McGregor on beginnings

October 18: Wendy Erskine on character

October 25: Kit de Waal on editing your own work

November 1: Chris Power on detail

November 8: Carys Davies on point of view

November 15: Tessa Hadley on time

You can book here

My short story collection The Redemption of Galen Pike, first published in 2014, has been re-issued with this beautiful new cover, designed by Christopher Hamilton-Emery.

I loved being on the panel of 16 authors and critics tasked with picking the finest English language novels published since Joyce’s classic. Each of us nominated 20 novels, and you can read about those that made the final cut here.

I’m delighted to have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. See the full list of new Fellows in The Guardian.

La Missione is coming out in Italy on June 29th, from Bompiani.

This will be out on April 8th from Editions du Seuil with the title Le Voyage de Hilary Byrd.

Friday October 8th - Sunday October 10th 2021, 18:00 BST Online

Five short, sharp workshops and a one-on-one session with each tutor, plus a chance to ask your own technical questions of them in an evening open hour.

More details and booking here

See the full list of 50 fiction and 50 non-fiction books in The Times here and The Sunday Times here

Scottish: Andrew O’Hagan Mayflies
Welsh: Carys Davies The Mission House
Irish: Caoilinn Hughes The Wild Laughter

More on Waterstones June Books of the Month here

The Sunday Times Short Story Award invites writers to talk about their favourite short stories - I was thrilled to hear Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory and Circus of Wonders, talking here about The Travellers, from my collection The Redemption of Galen Pike.

I’m delighted to be joining the Aldeburgh Bookshop Book Club via Zoom on Monday July 12th at 6pm for a discussion of The Mission House. Booking information here.

The paperback of The Mission House - out on June 3rd - is the Sunday Times Paperback of the Week.

More here (£)

20 novels translated from nine different languages into Dutch are longlisted for this year’s prize. Click here for the list of titles, authors and translators. Shortlist announced in June.

I’m delighted to be talking about The Mission House to the prize-winning novelist, poet and short story writer Caoilinn Hughes next Friday, April 16th, 12.00-13.00 CT, 18.00-19.00 GMT. It’s the first in her new online series of bi-monthly interviews with UK and Irish writers for the Chicago-based bookshop, Exile In Bookville. Tickets here

‘A singular voice… Davies’ writing is sublime’ —Toronto Star

Full review here

The 18th International Ankara Story Days festival will be held online this year between March 1-15, 2021. I’ll be talking to Pelin Buzluk about the stories in Kuytu (The Redemption of Galen Pike) on March 12th at 17.00 GMT. Full programme here

‘The Mission House is a careful, quiet, skillful drama of well-meant misunderstandings and cultural divisions. The interactions are polite and repressed, but the story is galvanized by the “passion simmering under the surface of things. Always, every once in a while, the lid blowing off, and nothing, it seemed, that anyone could do to stop it happening”’ —The Wall Street Journal

Full review here (£)

Guest host David Sedaris presents three stories about recollection and redemption as part of WNYC Radio’s Selected Shorts series. In Sibyl by Carys Davies, read by Jane Kaczmarek, two lonely vacationers are brought together. Andre Braugher performs an excerpt from Toni Morrison’s master work, Beloved. And a daughter returns home to help her aging father in an excerpt from Rachel Khong’s bittersweet novel Goodbye, Vitamin, performed by Jennifer Ikeda

Read more about Selected Shorts here

The National Centre For Writing in Norwich has put together another of its excellent online packs for writers. I joined four other writers to talk about dialogue here

My very grateful thanks to my editor, Sarah Goldberg, and to all at Scribner.

The Mission House - Het Missie Huis - is out today in the Netherlands, translated into Dutch by the brilliant Nicolette Hoekmeijer. Huge thanks to Nicolette and to all at Meulenhoff

Link to the book here

O, The Oprah Magazine has picked its 20 Best Books To Fall In Love With this month and describes The Mission House as ‘luminous… an elegant tale that probes the jagged shadows of colonialism. Davies is a writer to watch—and to savor’

Full article here

My essay for Lit Hub on the storming of the Capitol, Brexit, and the rise of Hindu nationalism is here

The UK paperback edition of The Mission House will be out in June from Granta with this beautiful new cover

‘Lightly yet deftly crafted, hovering in tone somewhere between comedy, tragedy, and fable.'

Full review here

‘A rich and layered novel.’

Full review here

'Part mystery, part romance, this charming story is set in the present but has the feel of an earlier time.’

Full review here

I’m absolutely delighted that The Mission House has been chosen as The Sunday Times Novel of the Year. More here

‘Beautifully done, with the same resonant concision as Carys Davies’s fine first novel West, it’s a haunting picture of colonialism’s long legacy.'