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The 2019 Man Booker Prize shortlist is here!
The literary prize, among the most prestigious of its kind, aims “to promote the finest in fiction by rewarding the best novel of the year written in English and published in the United Kingdom.” (Feel free to brush up on the longlist before diving into the shortlist below.)
Announced during a press conference at London’s British Library, 2019 Chair of Judges Peter Florence said: “We have a shortlist of six extraordinary books and we could make a case for each of them as winner, but I want to toast all of them as ‘winners.’ Anyone who reads all six of these books would be enriched and delighted, would be awe-struck by the power of story, and encouraged by what literature can do to set our imaginations free.”
This year’s shortlist includes former winner and six-time nominee, Margaret Atwood, for her heavily guarded sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale (out next Tuesday!); former winner Salman Rushdie; Lucy Ellmann for an experimental 1,000-page monologue; British novelist Bernardine Evaristo; our own Chigozie Obioma, who was a 2015 finalist; and Turkish novelist Elif Shafak.
Here’s the 2019 Man Booker shortlist (and applicable bonus links):
- The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Read our 2015 interview with Atwood)
- Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
- Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
- An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma (Read our interview with Obioma)
- Quichotte by Salman Rushdie (Read a recent profile of Rushdie)
- 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
The Man Booker Prize winner will be announced on October 14 at a ceremony in London.