Mohsin Hamid in Man Booker shortlist; Arundhati Roy out of race
13 Sept 2017 10:09 PM IST
London: The shortlist for the 2017 Man Booker Prize was announced earlier on Wednesday, with Paul Auster's 4321, Emily Fridlund's History of Wolves, Pakistani-UK writer Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, Fiona Mozley's Elmet, George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo and Ali Smith's Autumn making the cut. The winner will be announced on October 17.
The competition is judged by chair Baroness Lola Young, Lila Azam Zanganeh, Sarah Hall, Tom Phillips and Colin Thubron.
Arundhati Roy, who had been longlisted for the prize in July for her latest novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, failed to find a place in the shortlist.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness novel was considered among the top competitors for the race and was earlier described as a "significant" work of fiction.
Widely hailed by international critics, Roy's novel was thought to be a sure-name in the short list. Roy has previously won the award in 1997 for debut novel, The God of Small Things.
The short-list includes American authors Paul Auster for "4321", Emily Fridlund for "History of Wolves", and George Saunders for "Lincoln in the Bardo". The British authors include Pakistan-born Mohsin Hamid for "Exit West", Fiona Mozley for "Elmet" and Ali Smith for "Autumn".
The final six will now battle for the coveted award to be announced on October 17 at Guildhall here.
The shortlist, which features three women and three men, covers a wide range of subjects, from the struggle of a family trying to retain its self-sufficiency in rural England to an amorous tale of two refugees seeking to flee an unnamed city in the throes of civil war.
Two first-time female writers Fridlund and Mozley are joined by two previously shortlisted authors, Hamid, who had been short-listed in 2007 for "The Reluctant Fundamentalist", and Smith, who made the cut for the fourth time.
Mozley, a part-time worker at a UK bookshop, is also the youngest author on the list, aged 29.
The 2017 judging panel, led by Baroness Lola Young, said the short-listed novels, each in their own way, challenge and subtly shift preconceptions about the nature of love, about the experience of time, about questions of identity and even death.
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