LONDON – Two Canadians are among 13 novelists nominated for Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize for fiction.
Madeleine Thien of Vancouver and Canadian-born David Szalay got nods for their novels “Do Not Say We Have Nothing” and “All That Man Is” respectively.
Celebrated South African novelist J.M. Coetzee (“The Schooldays of Jesus”) and U.S. Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout (“My Name is Lucy Barton”) are also among the contenders.
Coetzee, who lives in Australia, is the early bookies’ favorite and will become the first triple Booker winner if he takes the prize. He won in 1983 with “Life and Times of Michael K” and in 1999 with “Disgrace.”
The list includes four first-time novelists — David Means, Wyl Menmuir, Otessa Moshfegh and Virginia Reeves — alongside established authors such as A.K. Kennedy and Deborah Levy.
The list also includes five American authors. Previously open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, the Booker expanded in 2014 to include all English-language authors. Despite fears of U.S. dominance, there has not yet been an American winner.
Six finalists will be announced Sept. 13 and the winner of the 50,000 pound (CAD$86,000) prize will be named Oct. 25.
*With files from the Associated Press