LONDON: The winner of Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize will be announced on Wednesday from a diverse shortlist of novels covering topics ranging from apartheid South Africa to female pilots and social media.
This year’s finalists for the prize at a ceremony in London from 1915 GMT include books by authors from South Africa, Britain, Sri Lanka and the United States.
South African playwright Damon Galgut, 57, is set to win over with his novel “The Promise” about a white family with a farm outside Pretoria.
Covering the late apartheid era of Jacob Zuma’s presidency, the book shows the family’s growing disintegration as the country emerges into a democracy.
The New Yorker called it “remarkable”, while South Africa’s Sunday Times said “it is astonishing how much history Galgot holds in this short novel”.
The award, whose past recipients have included Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantle, one of the leading literary awards for novels written in English.
The winner receives a £50,000 ($68,000) prize plus a career-changing boost in sales and public profile.
Galgut is one of two writers previously selected with American Writers Richard Powers, 64, whose novel “Bewildrement” is about an astrobiologist struggling to cope with his young son’s behavioral problems.
Another American writer, Patricia LockwoodThe 39-year-old was nominated for her debut novel, “No One Is Talking About This,” featuring 30 people obsessed with social media who have to deal with a shocking medical diagnosis.
Other books look at 20th century history.
Sri Lanka In his second novel “A Passage North”, 33-year-old author Anuk Arudpragasam focuses on the painful legacy of the country’s nearly three-decade civil war that ended in 2009.
“The Fortune Men”, by a British-Somali writer Nadifa Mohammed, 40, is based on the true story of a Somali sailor who was wrongfully convicted of murder in the multicultural port of Cardiff in the 1950s.
“Great Circle”, by American novelist Maggie ShipsteadThe 38-Year-Old tells the story of a fictional female pilot hoping to fly pole-to-pole around the world, intertwined with first-person narrative from a Hollywood star playing her role.
This year’s televised ceremony at the BBC’s Broadcasting House in London will feature all the shortlisted writers as the video appeared last year due to the Covid restrictions.
The ceremony will include a pre-recorded conversation between Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, and a longtime Booker advocate, and last year’s prize winner Douglas Stuart, 45, was told for his novel “Shuggy Bane”. How has winning the award affected his life?
This year’s finalists for the prize at a ceremony in London from 1915 GMT include books by authors from South Africa, Britain, Sri Lanka and the United States.
South African playwright Damon Galgut, 57, is set to win over with his novel “The Promise” about a white family with a farm outside Pretoria.
Covering the late apartheid era of Jacob Zuma’s presidency, the book shows the family’s growing disintegration as the country emerges into a democracy.
The New Yorker called it “remarkable”, while South Africa’s Sunday Times said “it is astonishing how much history Galgot holds in this short novel”.
The award, whose past recipients have included Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantle, one of the leading literary awards for novels written in English.
The winner receives a £50,000 ($68,000) prize plus a career-changing boost in sales and public profile.
Galgut is one of two writers previously selected with American Writers Richard Powers, 64, whose novel “Bewildrement” is about an astrobiologist struggling to cope with his young son’s behavioral problems.
Another American writer, Patricia LockwoodThe 39-year-old was nominated for her debut novel, “No One Is Talking About This,” featuring 30 people obsessed with social media who have to deal with a shocking medical diagnosis.
Other books look at 20th century history.
Sri Lanka In his second novel “A Passage North”, 33-year-old author Anuk Arudpragasam focuses on the painful legacy of the country’s nearly three-decade civil war that ended in 2009.
“The Fortune Men”, by a British-Somali writer Nadifa Mohammed, 40, is based on the true story of a Somali sailor who was wrongfully convicted of murder in the multicultural port of Cardiff in the 1950s.
“Great Circle”, by American novelist Maggie ShipsteadThe 38-Year-Old tells the story of a fictional female pilot hoping to fly pole-to-pole around the world, intertwined with first-person narrative from a Hollywood star playing her role.
This year’s televised ceremony at the BBC’s Broadcasting House in London will feature all the shortlisted writers as the video appeared last year due to the Covid restrictions.
The ceremony will include a pre-recorded conversation between Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, and a longtime Booker advocate, and last year’s prize winner Douglas Stuart, 45, was told for his novel “Shuggy Bane”. How has winning the award affected his life?
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