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The Booker Prize judges meet to choose a winner of the prestigious literary award, choosing from a list of six books that is dominated by the United States and is surprisingly diverse.
LONDON – The Booker Prize judges will meet on Thursday to select a winner of the prestigious literary award, choosing from a list of six books that is dominated by the United States and is surprisingly diverse.
Five of the books competing for the £ 50,000 ($ 66,000) prize are by US or US-based authors, including “The Shadow King,” the story of an orphan in Ethiopia by Maaza Mengiste; Diane Cook’s dystopian tale “The New Wilderness,” Avni Doshi’s mother-daughter saga set in India “Burnt Sugar” and Brandon Taylor’s “Real Life,” exploring racism and homophobia in academic life.
The only British contender is New York-based Scottish writer Douglas Stuart for “Shuggie Bain,” the story of a boy’s turbulent coming of age in 1980s Glasgow.
Also on the list is “This Mournable Body” by Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga, relating the breakdown of his central character and the upheaval in postcolonial Zimbabwe. Dangarembga, one of Zimbabwe’s most awarded authors, was arrested in July and was detained overnight for participating in anti-corruption protests.
The traditional Booker gala dinner at London’s medieval Guildhall has been scrapped due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the winner’s announcement will air online and on radio Thursday afternoon from London’s Roundhouse art venue, with virtual appearances from Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and former US President Barack Obama. Obama’s new memoir, “A Promised Land,” was released this week and sold nearly 890,000 copies in the United States and Canada in its first 24 hours.
The award generally gives the winner a big boost in sales and profile, and often sparks a debate about the state of the English-language literary scene.
This year’s six finalists include four debut novelists – Doshi, Cook, Stuart and Taylor – and skip high-profile books like “The Mirror and the Light,” the conclusion to Hilary Mantel’s acclaimed Tudor trilogy. Mantel won the Booker for his two predecessors, “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the Bodies” and had received many tips for the triplet.
Founded in 1969, the award is open to English-speaking authors from around the world, but until 2014 only British, Irish and Commonwealth writers were eligible.
That year’s turnaround sparked fears among some Britons that it would become a US-dominated prize. That has not happened yet. There have been two American winners, “The Sellout” by Paul Beatty in 2016 and “Lincoln in the Bardo” by George Saunders in 2017.
Last year’s award was jointly won by Canadian Margaret Atwood for “The Testaments” and Britain’s Bernardine Evaristo for “Girl, Woman, Other.”
