The Shape of Her by Rowan Somerville has won the Literary Review‘s annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award.

The Guardian has more about the win: “He graciously accepted the honour, presented by film director and food critic Michael Winner, saying: ‘There is nothing more English than bad sex, so on behalf of the entire nation I would like to thank you.’”

The complete shortlist follows below. Some Americans hoped that Jonathan Franzen would win the award for Freedom. By our count, Freedom featured 94 different references to the word “sex,” including this passage: “One hesitates to ascribe too much explanatory significance to sex, and yet the autobiographer would be derelict in her duties if she didn’t devote an uncomfortable paragraph to it.”

The complete list of Bad Sex in Fiction Award nominees, via Literary Review.
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (4th Estate)
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (Atlantic Books)
The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon (Atlantic Books)
Maya by Alastair Campbell (Hutchinson)
A Life Apart by Neel Mukherjee (Constable & Robinson)
Heartbreak by Craig Raine (Atlantic Books)
The Shape of Her by Rowan Somerville (W&N)
Mr Peanut by Adam Ross (Jonathan Cape).