Novels from Canada, Ireland, the United States, and the United Kingdom that explore families, communities and a world in crisis make up the six finalists for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction.
The Shortlist announced on Thursday for the 50,000 British pounds ($61,400) award includes Canadian author Sarah Bernstein’s absurdist allegory Study for Obedience; US writer Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You, a set of interlinked stories about a Jamaican family in Miami; and Pulitzer Prize-winning US novelist Paul Harding’s historical novel This Other Eden, based on a real interracial island community in the 19th century.
Two Irish writers are on the Shortlist: Paul Lynch, for the post-democratic dystopia, Prophet Song; and Paul Murray, for the tragicomic family saga, The Bee Sting.
The finalists are rounded out by UK writer Chetna Maroo’s Western Lane, the story of a young athlete grappling with a family tragedy.
The best-known authors among the 13 semi-finalists announced last month, Ireland’s Sebastian Barry and Malaysia’s Tan Twan Eng, did not make the cut.