Women's Prize Mini Reviews - Artists, Siblings, Visionaries by Judith Mackrell and Audition by Katie Katamura
Author: Judith Mackrell
Rating: 3 stars / 5 stars
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Favorite Quote: “But under the influence of her friends, she was learning to care more about the art she had made herself and the importance of having it seen. Rodin had done almost nothing to promote her work . . . . ” Mackrell, Judith. Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John. Piador, 2025, pg. 161.
Review: Mackrell’s book is an intensive study of the lives of Gwen and August John, their work, and their lives/experiences in a variety of bustling European art scenes. She successfully creates portraits of both artists - their similarities, their differences, and the ways in which their familial bonds both helped and hindered their personal and professional lives. Mackrell doesn’t shy away from their flaws, and, especially with Augustus, often details them with great attention.
The sections about Gwen are frankly working the best. Most of the quotes I noted in the book were about her - her life, her personality, her desires, her struggles, her lovers. Both siblings were three dimensional in this book, but Gwen leapt off the page. This is particularly striking, given the anonymity in which she died, compared to the fame Augustus held onto throughout his life.
My personal rating here is less about the quality of the book and more about the topic - it’s fascinating, but I don’t have a wide basis of knowledge for different art movements, so much of it was outside my academic/personal background. Mackrell does do a significant deep dive, so it was incredibly immersive, but I think someone with a better knowledge of art history would likely connect to this book far better. (Also…I hate Augustus. The author has no control over that. But…I hate him.)
About that Quote: One of the arcs of the book is Gwen’s struggles to find herself, her voice in her art, and her confidence. Having Rodin as an (objectively awful) lover in whom she vested so much of her energy demonstrated one of many times where her focus/obsession was not with her own work, but external and to her own detriment. This quote shows a shift, and an important one.
Title: Audition
Author: Katie Kitamura
Rating: 4 stars / 5 stars
Favorite Quote: “Because in fact we don’t want to see the thing itself, on a screen or on a stage, we don’t want to see actual pain or suffering or death, but its representation, Our awareness of the performance is what alloys us to enjoy the emotion, to creep close to it and breathe in its atmosphere, performance allows this dangerous proximity." Kitamura, Katie. Audition. Riverhead Books, 2025, pg. 78.
Review: I’m going to be honest that I don’t know that I fully understood this book, but I did enjoy it. The book comes in two parts: both following the same main character (an actress) - one in which a young man infiltrates her life and insists he is her son and she insists he is not, the other part in which she is. In both parts, she struggles with his presence, but in different ways.
The first part of the book was better - it was a stronger narrative that was more taut with its tension. The balance of the second part, also seems necessary, though it frankly is confusing, and maybe I’m just not quite smart enough to figure out what exactly happened between the two parts. (I had a similar reaction to Worry Doll by Laura McPhee - Brown, which I also loved despite being confused.)
Audition, despite being one of the shorter novels on the Women’s Prize for 2026, is one of the more powerful - it’s short because Kitamura is able to capture the atmosphere and the tension in impeccable, perfectly crafted sentences. There’s no need for filler when the narrative rolls out so lyrically on the page.
About that Quote: This quote seems to capture one of the core tenets of the book - this interplay between reality and not-quite-reality, whether that comes from the stage, or from the character’s own inner world.
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