The four books on the Young Writer of the Year shortlist could hardly be more different from each other. There is a novel, a collection of poetry, an anthology of short stories and a novella. And yet they all have a great deal in common. To begin with – obviously – they are all written by young writers, that is writers of 35 years or under. They all in their different ways grab the attention of the reader and linger in your mind long after you have read them. They all make you stop and think. And they all in various ways push the boundaries of literature – by their use of language, their content, their format and above all their originality.

 

Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter (published by Faber & Faber and available in paperback at £5.59, as an ebook or an audio download) is quite simply not like anything I have read before. It’s a novella (i.e. shorter than a novel but longer than a short story), a portrayal of grief which has rarely been bettered, an entanglement with the Ted Hughes poem The Crow, a piece of prose poetry which is as beautiful as it is dark and haunting.

 

Physical by Andrew McMillan (published by Cape Poetry and available in paperback at £9.99 and ebook) has already won the 2015 Guardian First Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Poetry Award. It’s an intensely personal and very engaging collection of poems – written almost entirely in lower case and without punctuation – many of which haunt you in much the same way as Grief is the Thing with Feathers does.

 

A third of the way through The Ecliptic by Benjamin Wood (published by Scribner and available in paperback at £6.99 or as an ebook or audio download) I was intrigued to realise that I had no idea where the story was going nor where it would end up. Telling of a reclusive group of artists who for various reasons struggle to live in the ‘real’ world, and who find their tenuous grip on reality disturbed by the arrival of a young man haunted by dreams, this novel draws you in from the very beginning because of the power of the writing, and refuses to let you go. It’s original and it’s well-written, and like all the other books on this shortlist it is so worth reading.

 

An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It is the title of one of the stories in this collection by Jessie Greengrass as well as the title of the book as a whole. It’s the first story in the book and it sets the scene for the others which are without exception well-conceived, well- put-together, and, it almost goes without saying, well-written. There are twelve stories altogether and they vary in time and place, spanning both past and present, and numerous geographical locations. All The Other Jobs stood out for me, but this is a collection which will have universal appeal. Published by JM Originals it is available in paperback priced at £10.99 and as an ebook.

 

I’ve pondered for a long time about which I would choose as the winner if I were on the judging panel, but in the end for me there is no real contest. It has to be Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter, because of its originality, because it won’t leave my head and because I wish I’d written it.

 

And I’m delighted to say that the ‘official’ judges agreed with me. The winner of The Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award 2016 is Max Porter for Grief is the Thing with Feathers.