Independent Black publisher Cassava Republic Press is celebrating a major literary victory for its title The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson.
The debut novel, which was, according to a statement, turned away by 50 other publishers before finding a home at the London- and Abuja-based press, has now been longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Discover Prize at the British Book Awards, an accolade designed specifically to amplify underrepresented writers and the independent presses that champion them.
Set in Bradford in December 1962, the novel centres on Mercy, a precocious Jamaican-British girl navigating a household shaped by a violent father, a devout mother and the long shadow of the Windrush. Raw, tender and often darkly comic, it is a story informed by Hutchinson’s own experience as a child of Windrush generation parents.
It was Senior Editor Layla Mohamed who spotted the manuscript’s potential after the industry had closed its doors. Mohamed said she knew from the opening pages that the novel was something extraordinary, and that the rejections only deepened her conviction that Cassava Republic had to publish it.
For Cassava Republic Press, with nearly 150 titles, over six million books sold and translations into 30 languages, the dual nominations affirm a founding conviction that African and Black storytellers must own the means of cultural production in order to shape their own narratives.
The novel has drawn wide critical praise. Actor and author Paterson Joseph described it as a moving and perfectly observed slice of Black British life with the hallmarks of a modern classic. Author Irenosen Okojie called it a brilliant debut with a child protagonist impossible to look away from, while Roisin O’Donnell, herself longlisted for the Women’s Prize, praised Hutchinson’s compassion and authenticity in giving voice to children as the unseen victims of domestic abuse.
The Observer summed up the novel’s achievement as dark and humorous storytelling that passionately captures the unique realities of the northern Black experience, told with imaginative power from a child’s vantage point.
Hutchinson’s own story is no less remarkable than Mercy’s. Born in 1962 to Windrush generation Jamaican parents, she was the first pupil from her comprehensive school to read Law at Oxford. She later founded an educational publishing company, was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to cultural diversity, and served as a Labour Councillor after relocating to Manchester. She is now a full-time writer and a member of the Black Writers’ Guild.
The Women’s Prize shortlist will be announced on April 22, with the paperback edition of The Mercy Step due on April 30. The British Book Awards ceremony follows in May.
Founded with a mission to make African and Afrodiaspora writing central to global cultural production, Cassava Republic Press (www.cassavarepublic.biz) is an African-owned, women-led independent publisher based in London and Abuja. In nearly two decades, it has published close to 150 books, sold over six million copies and translated titles into 30 languages across more than 60 countries. The press has launched the international careers of authors including Teju Cole, Sarah Ladipo-Manyika and Elnathan John, and is the creator of the Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize. Awards include the AfriExim Bank CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa (2025), the British Book Awards’ inaugural Small Press of the Year (2019), and the London Book Fair Excellence Award for Inclusivity (2017).
