LONDON (AP) 鈥� Canadian writer Anne Michaels is among six finalists shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction this year.
Organizers said Monday that Michaels is shortlisted for her novel "Held," a story of memory, love and time that starts on a battlefield in France in 1917.
Five of the six authors are women 鈥� the largest number in the prize's 55-year history.
American writer Percival Everett, a 2022 Booker finalist for 鈥淭he Trees,鈥� is again nominated for 鈥淛ames,鈥� which reimagines Mark Twain鈥檚 鈥淗uckleberry Finn鈥� from the point of view of its main Black character, the enslaved man Jim.
Rachel Kushner, another former Booker finalist from the U.S., with her bestseller 鈥淭he Mars Room,鈥� is a contender again with spy story 鈥淐reation Lake.鈥�
The other finalists vying for the 50,000 pound (US$64,000) award are Britain's Samantha Harvey, for 鈥淥rbital"; Australia's Charlotte Wood for 鈥淪tone Yard Devotional"; and Yael van der Wouden 鈥� the first Dutch author to be shortlisted for the Booker 鈥� for her debut, 鈥淭he Safekeep.鈥�
Organizers said the stories transport readers from World War I battlefields to America's Deep South in the 19th century to the International Space Station.
鈥淗ere is storytelling in which people confront the world in all its instability and complexity. The fault lines of our times are here,鈥� said author Edmund de Waal, who chairs this year's five-member judging panel. 鈥淭hey are books that made us want to keep on reading, to ring up friends and tell them about them.鈥�
The winner will be announced on Nov. 12 at a ceremony in London.
Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize celebrates the best fiction and is open to novels from any country published in the U.K. and Ireland.
The Associated Press
