Booker Prize for Fiction 2021: the shortlisted authors | Books | DW
Booker Prize Judging Chairperson historian Maya Jasanoff announced the six shortlisted authors for the £ 50,000 (€ 58,750) prize earlier this year. An early novelist, American author Patricia Lockwood, Sri Lankan writer Anuk Arudpragasam, British Somali novelist Nadifa Mohamed and South African scribe Damon Galgut – whose novel “The Promise” is the favorite to win the prestigious award – are among the various authors. vying for literary greatness.
Patricia Lockwood is the only first novelist on the list
1. Patricia lockwood
The American poet and writer is the only first novelist in the 2021 shortlist, with “No One is Talking About This” also shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Having already written two books of poetry and the memoir “Priestdaddy”, the editor of the London book review wrote a poignant drama of life in the Internet age. The book tells the story of a social media guru who travels through a world dominated by her internet existence, which she calls “the portal.” Two urgent text messages from his mother pierce the guru’s bubble.
Nadifa Mohamed is the first British Somali to be on the shortlist
2. Nadifa Mohamed
First British Somali novelist to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Nadifa Mohamed’s third novel, “The Fortune Men”, is the poignant fictionalized tale of Mahmood Mattan, a father and petty thief who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1952 – and the last man to be hanged in Cardiff prison in Wales. When a trader is brutally killed, the accused Mahmood, a Somali immigrant, is safe in his innocence – until the trial draws near and he comes face to face with a conspiracy and innate prejudices against him. will inflict the ultimate punishment. “I knew I wanted to make the line between fact and fiction imperceptible,” said the author.
Richard Powers: author of bestseller “The Overstory” was nominated for the second time for “Bewilderment”
3. Richard Powers
The award-winning American author of 13 novels has been shortlisted twice for The Booker, and this year is shortlisted for “Bewilderment”. After “The Overstory” was on the list in 2018 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, “Bewilderment” details a special relationship between a scientific father and his loving son who wants to save the world but has just attacked a friend in school. Does the boy need to take any medicine? Instead, his father takes him on a trip to space to understand his own destructive planet.
4. Anuk Arudpragasam
The Sri Lankan Tamil novelist is shortlisted for his second novel, “A Passage North”. Arudpragasam was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize who studied philosophy in the United States, his nominee Booker is trying to come to terms with life following the devastation caused by the 30-year civil war in Sri Lanka. As Krishan makes the long train journey from Colombo to a northern Tamil province to attend a family funeral, a journey begins into the bruised soul of a shattered land.
‘The Promise’ is the current favorite for the price
5. Damon Galgut
The South African playwright and novelist wrote his first novel at the age of 17 and has now been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize, this time for ‘The Promise’, the top favorite. Having won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize 2015 for her eighth book, “Arctic Summer”, her latest novel details the intergenerational split within a white South African farming family. At the matriarch’s funeral, children express their contempt for everything the family stands for, including the broken promise to the black woman who has worked for them her entire life.
Maggie Shipstead’s third novel “Great Circle” sees parallel worlds collide
6. Maggie Shipstead
The American novelist is shortlisted for her third novel, “Great Circle”, which is expected to follow the success of her 2012 debut novel, “Seating Arrangements”. – a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Dylan Thomas award. “The Great Circle” portrays the crossed lives of a pioneering aviator and the actress who portrayed her onscreen decades later. When the daredevil Marian Graves in 1950 embarks on her ultimate adventure, the Grand Cercle – a flight around the world – she will never be seen again. Half a century later, Hadley Baxter, a scandalized Hollywood actress whose own parents perished in a plane crash, is irresistibly drawn to Marian Graves.
