Two Canadians on the Booker long list
Two Canadians were among 13 novelists on the long list for Britain’s prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction on Wednesday.
Vancouver-born, Montreal-based Madeleine Thien was recognized for Do Not Say We Have Nothing and Montreal-born, Hungary-based David Szalay got the nod for All That Man Is.
Do Not Say We Have Nothing is set in China before, during and after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Thien’s novel is explored through two successive generations: those who lived through Mao’s Cultural Revolution in the mid-20th century and the children of survivors who became student demonstrators.
All That Man Is is set in various European cities and offers a window into the lives of men at different stages in their lives, from their teens through old age.
Celebrated South African novelist J.M. Coetzee and U.S. Pulitzer Prize-winner Elizabeth Strout are also among the contenders.
Coetzee’s The Schooldays of Jesus and Strout’s My Name Is Lucy Barton are among the best-known titles on a long list that spurned big-name writers including Ian McEwanand Don DeLillo in favour of less-famous authors and first-time novelists.
Coetzee, who lives in Australia, is the early bookies’ favourite and would 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.
Strout won the fiction Pulitzer in 2009 for Olive Kitteridge, which was turned into a HBO miniseries starring Frances McDormand.
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 of the prize.
Six finalists will be announced Sept. 13 and the winner of the £50,000 ($86,000) prize will be named on Oct. 25.