Female-dominated Wellcome book prize shortlist spans Victorian surgery and modern Nigeria

Titles vying for 30,000 award for books on health and medicine include AyaIbimi Adi(C)biyaI's novel Stay With Me and Sigrid Rausing's memoir Mayhem

A reflection on death from a palliative care consultant sits alongside a Nigerian novel tackling the heartbreak of infertility on the female-dominated Wellcome book prize shortlist.

Chair of judges Edmund de Waal praised the six contenders for the 30,000 award for adding to public discussion about what it means to be human. The panel of judges, he said, were looking for "books that start debates or deepen them, that move us profoundly, surprise and delight and perplex us, that bring the worlds of medicine and health into urgent public conversation".