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LONDON • First-time novelists dominated the shortlist for this year’s Booker Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards, the judges announced Tuesday, while star authors like Hilary Mantel and Anne Tyler were not on the list.
Four of the six shortlisted books are by first-time writers, three of whom are American, while the fourth has dual Scottish and American nationality. Four of the shortlisted books are by women.
Nominated debuts include Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain, a violent story of a boy growing up in 1980s Scotland; and Brandon Taylor’s Real Life, about a black gay graduate student navigating campus life.
Diane Cook’s The New Wilderness, set in a dystopian future in which almost the entire natural world has been destroyed; and Avni Doshi’s Burnt Sugar, about an artist’s struggles to cope with her aging mother, are the other two debuts on the list.
The number of debuts “was a surprise,” said Sameer Rahim, author and one of the judges, at a press conference in London to announce the shortlist. But he said it was “a red herring” to focus on that topic because many of the authors had prior writing experience.
The judges also read most of the books submitted in PDF, few of which contained biographical information, Rahim added, so they did not know which ones were by newcomer novelists.
“You don’t have time to Google the authors,” he said.
In previous years, Booker’s list of finalists was dominated by literature heavyweights, with works by Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Elif Shafak on last year’s list.
In 2018, a group of high-profile authors unsuccessfully demanded that the Man Booker Foundation bar American authors from being eligible.
This year’s long list, revealed in July, included Mantel’s The Mirror And The Light, the conclusion to his acclaimed Thomas Cromwell trilogy; and Tyler’s redhead on the side of the road. None of the books made the cut.
“As good as it was, there were six that were better,” said detective novelist Lee Child, one of the judges, when asked about Mantel’s omission at the press conference.
Mantel won the Booker Award for the first two parts of his Cromwell trilogy: in 2009 for Wolf Hall and in 2012 for Bring Up The Bodies.
The Booker Prize, awarded to the best work of English-language fiction published in Britain and Ireland, has launched careers and sparked countless storylines since its inception in 1969. Past recipients range from contemporary giants like Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes to Kazuo Ishiguro and Roddy Doyle.
The competition broke the rule book last year by splitting the fiction award between Canadian Margaret Atwood and Anglo-Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo.
It has already sparked controversy this year by pitting nine Americans or dual US citizens against just three Brits, and now by overlooking Mantel’s Mirror and Light.
This year, two of the books on the final list are by established authors: The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste and This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga, both of which have received praise.
Writer Namwali Serpell, in a review for The New York Times, called Mengiste’s book on Ethiopian women in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War a “remarkable new lyrical novel.”
This pitiful body, about a woman struggling to find employment in Zimbabwe, has been equally praised.
Author Alexandra Fuller, writing in The New York Times, called it “a masterpiece” seeing how women try to “imagine and work their way out of a narrative that has already been decided for them.”
Dangarembga is perhaps the best known name on the list due to his political struggles. In July, she was arrested in Zimbabwe for participating in anti-corruption protests.
The short list was chosen from a long list of 13 books. Originally, 162 books were submitted for the award. They were read by five judges, including Child and Lemn Sissay, a British poet.
The winning title will be unveiled at a ceremony in London on November 17. Its author will receive £ 50,000 (S $ 87,700).
NYTIMES, PRESS AGENCY FRANCE
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