This Must Be the Place
British novelist, born 1972. Won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2020, the British Book Awards: Fiction Book of the Year in 2021 and the Costa Novel Award in 2010.
This Must Be the Place is a 2016 novel by Maggie O'Farrell. It was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award in 2016.
In family saga
On 3 of the 16 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Maggie O'Farrell
- First published
- 2016
- Length
- 512 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- Costa Novel Award shortlist, 2016
- British Book Awards Fiction shortlist, 2017
- Genre
- Literary fiction, Love story, Family saga, Psychological
Is This Must Be the Place worth reading?
3 of the 16 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the British Book Awards' Fiction Book of the Year and the Costa Novel Award.
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| British Book Awards: Fiction Book of the Year (winners and shortlists) (The Bookseller, 2017) | Shortlist | See the list |
| Costa (Whitbread) Novel Award (winners and shortlists) (Costa, 2016) | Shortlist | See the list |
| Richard & Judy Book Club picks (Richard & Judy / WHSmith, 2004-) | Listed | See the list |
Best edition of This Must Be the Place
The edition we link to is the Tinder Press paperback (2025), 512 pages.
- Publisher
- Tinder Press (paperback, 2025)
- Pages
- 512
- ISBN
- 9781035430116
How critics, prizes and readers rate This Must Be the Place
Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 27% of the points available on prize lists, against 7% on readers' and booksellers' lists and 0% on critics' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like This Must Be the Place
If you liked This Must Be the Place, try Hamnet, The Marriage Portrait or Instructions for a Heatwave.
