Taylor Jenkins Reid has been awarded the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 for her sixth novel, the ‘immersive’ and ‘captivating’ Daisy Jones and the Six, which tells the story of the rise and fall of a fictional 70s rock band. Written as a series of fragmented interviews with the members of the band, and those around them, it is loosely based on the true story of Fleetwood Mac’s recording of their hit album Rumours.
Daisy Jones and the Six was announced as the winner, live on the afternoon on Thursday 2nd July, on Mariella Frostrup’s new show on Times Radio. It was part of an all-female shortlist, and was up against Bernardine Evaristo’s Booker-winning Girl, Woman, Other; Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer, which was awarded the British Book Award Crime & Thriller Book of the Year earlier in the week; Blood & Sugar, Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s critically acclaimed historical thriller; Erin Morgenstern’s fantastical second novel The Starless Sea and debut novelist Anita Frank’s haunting ghost story The Lost Ones.
The sixth novel from Los Angeles-based Jenkins Reid, whose previous books include The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and the Six was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. It is being adapted into a 12-part Amazon series produced by Witherspoon, with Mad Max actor Riley Keough attached to play Daisy Jones.
David Headley, co-founder of Goldsboro Books, and founder of the Glass Bell Award said: “My team and I hugely enjoyed judging this prize. Amidst everything, it gave us all the opportunity to completely lose ourselves in six incredibly compelling and completely different stories – all of which fulfilled the prize’s brief. It was a tough decision – there was so much to say and enjoy about each book. But we kept coming back to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s captivating, clever and often very funny tale of a fictional 70s rock band. Each character comes to life through the immersive interview style, and all of us agreed that the pages practically turned themselves. It’s a brilliant achievement.”
Founded in 2017 by David Headley, Managing Director of Goldsboro Books, the Glass Bell Award was set up to reward compelling storytelling with brilliant characterisation and a distinct voice that is confidently written and assuredly realised’, and is the only award to reward storytelling in all genres, from romance and crime to historical and speculative.
Previous winners are Chris Cleave, for his extraordinary Second World War novel Everyone Brave is Forgiven (Sceptre); John Boyne for his sweeping, poignant and comedic odyssey of post-war Ireland, The Heart’s Invisible Furies (Transworld) and Christina Dalcher for her thought-provoking dystopia Vox (HQ)
