Book award for lifetime output

American author Marilynne Robinson, Israel’s Aharon Appelfeld and China’s Yan Lianke are among 10 finalists for the Man Booker International Prize for fiction.

The award, an offshoot of Britain’s betterknown Man Booker novel-of-the-year prize, is awarded for a lifetime’s work. It is open to authors of all nationalities whose work is available in English.

Prize organisers said both China’s Yan and Russian finalist Vladimir Sorokin have had books banned in their homelands.

Yan fell foul of the authorities with Dream of Ding Village, about the AIDS crisis caused by HIV-contaminated blood.

Sorokin, best known for The Ice Trilogy, had his early books banned in Soviet times.

Other finalists announced at the Jaipur Literary Festival in India include Lydia Davis of the United States, Pakistan’s Intizar Husain, France’s Marie NDiaye and Indian writer U.R. Ananthamurthy.

Josip Novakovich – a Croatia-born Canadian writer – and Switzerland’s Peter Stamm round out the list.

Academic Christopher Ricks, who chairs the judging panel, said the 10 were ‘‘astonishingly different’’ writers, ranging in age from their 40s to their 80s.

Previous winners of the US$95,000 (NZ$113,000) award have included Canada’s Alice Munro, Nigeria’s Chinua Achebe and the 2011 winner Philip Roth of the United States.

This year’s winner will be announced in London on May 22.