Debut novels make 2020 Booker Prize shortlist

Four debut novelists were shortlisted alongside Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga, pictured, and Ethiopian-American Maaza Mengiste for the Booker Prize for best English language fiction, to be awarded in November.

American Avni Doshi’s

first novel, Burnt Sugar, will compete with fellow US debutants Diane Cook (The New Wilderness) and Brandon Taylor (Real

Life), and Scotland’s Douglas Stuart (Shuggie Bain), for one of the world’s most celebrated literary awards. Dangarembga’s This

Mournable Body, the final part in a trilogy, and The

Shadow King by Mengiste make up the six-strong shortlist of four women and two men.

It was whittled down by a panel of five judges from a US-dominated longlist of 13 finalists, which had included veteran Hilary Mantel.

“The shortlist of six came together unexpectedly, voices and characters resonating with us all even when very different,” Margaret Busby, chair of the 2020 judges, said in a statement, noting they ranged in setting from the ’80s Glasgow and post-colonial Zimbabwe to the ’30s Ethiopia and modern-day India.

The title of best work of English language fiction published in the United Kingdom and Ireland has launched careers and caused countless arguments since its creation in 1969.

Past laureates have ranged from contemporary giants such as Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes to Kazuo Ishiguro and Roddy Doyle.

The competition tore up the rule book last year by splitting the fiction award between Canada’s Margaret Atwood and Anglo-Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo.

The winner will be announced on 17 November and receive £50 000 (about R816 000) in prize money. –