Man Booker Prize shortlist includes icons and debutantes

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The 2017 Man Booker Prize fiction shortlist is evenly split with three women and three men. But while the men are best-selling US writer Paul Auster, The Reluctant Fundamentalist's Mohsin Hamid and the prolific short story writer George Saunders, the women include Emily Fridlund and Fiona Mozley - two debut authors.

Subjects this year range from the struggle of a family trying to retain its self-sufficiency in rural England to a love story between two refugees fleeing civil war.

In the fourth year that the 50,000-pound (66,400 US dollars) prize has been open to writers of any nationality, the shortlist is made up of two British, one British-Pakistani and three American writers.

Paul Auster /Photo via jiemian.com

Emily Fridlund /Photo via jiemian.com

Auster’s "4321" offers four versions of one young man's life while fellow US author Emily Fridlund’s debut novel "History of Wolves" is a coming-of-age tale about a teenage girl seeking a place to belong.

"Elmet," the first book by British author Fiona Mozley, tells the story of a father and his two children who clash with landowners after they build a home for themselves.

UK/Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid is on the list with "Exit West" in which refugees can use doors to escape to the other parts of the world.

George Saunders and his novel "Lincoln in the Barco." /Photo via jiemian.com

George Saunders’ first novel "Lincoln in the Bardo", is about Abraham Lincoln and the death of his eleven-year-old son, Willie, at the dawn of the American Civil War.

Scottish writer Ali Smith is on the shortlist for the fourth time, this year with "Autumn," a meditation on a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive.

The Man Booker Prize is awarded each year for the best original novel, written in English language and published in the UK. The winner will be announced on Oct. 17 in London’s Guildhall.

Source(s): Reuters