London, Sept. 7 (BNA): American authors Elizabeth Strout and Percival Everett will face writers from Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka as finalists for the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction.
Strout’s Symphony for Everyday Life “Hey William!” Everett’s powerful novel on racism and police violence, “The Trees,” is shortlisted for the £50,000 ($58,000) prize, Reuters reports.
Other contenders include Zimbabwe’s No Violet Bulawayo animal tale “Glory”. “Little Things Like This” by Irish writer Claire Keegan; and “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” by Sri Lankan director Shehan Karunatilaka.
British fantasy author Alan Garner – the oldest poker candidate at 87 years old – is listed as a “Treacle Walker”.
Former British Museum director Neil MacGregor, who chairs the jury, said many of the books were inspired by real events and “deal with the long national history of cruelty and injustice, in Sri Lanka, Ireland, Zimbabwe and the United States”.
“It’s going on in different places at different times,” he said of the shortlist, “it’s about events that happen to some extent everywhere, and it worries us all.”
Established in 1969, the Booker Prize has a reputation for changing the professions of writers and was originally open only to British, Irish and Commonwealth writers. Eligibility was expanded in 2014 to include all English novels published in the UK
Last year’s winner was “The Promise” by South African director Damon Galgot.
The winner will be crowned October 17 at a ceremony in London.
London, Sept. 7 (BNA): American authors Elizabeth Strout and Percival Everett will face writers from Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka as finalists for the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction.
Strout’s Symphony for Everyday Life “Hey William!” Everett’s powerful novel on racism and police violence, “The Trees,” is shortlisted for the £50,000 ($58,000) prize, Reuters reports.
Other contenders include Zimbabwe’s No Violet Bulawayo animal tale “Glory”. “Little Things Like This” by Irish writer Claire Keegan; and “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” by Sri Lankan director Shehan Karunatilaka.
British fantasy author Alan Garner – the oldest poker candidate at 87 years old – is listed as a “Treacle Walker”.
Former British Museum director Neil MacGregor, who chairs the jury, said many of the books were inspired by real events and “deal with the long national history of cruelty and injustice, in Sri Lanka, Ireland, Zimbabwe and the United States”.
“It’s going on in different places at different times,” he said of the shortlist, “it’s about events that happen to some extent everywhere, and it worries us all.”
Established in 1969, the Booker Prize has a reputation for changing the professions of writers and was originally open only to British, Irish and Commonwealth writers. Eligibility was expanded in 2014 to include all English novels published in the UK
Last year’s winner was “The Promise” by South African director Damon Galgot.
The winner will be crowned October 17 at a ceremony in London.