Chinese writer Can Xue and Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o, both long-favored contenders for the Nobel Prize for literature, are among nominees for the International Booker Prize for fiction.
Can Xue’s “I Live in the Slums” and Ngugi’s “The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gikuyu and Mumbi” are among 13 books on the long list for the 50,000 pound ($69,000) prize.
The list announced Tuesday features works from four continents, including “The War of the Poor” by France’s Eric Vuillard, “In Memory of Memory” by Russian writer Maria Stepanova, “The Dangers of Smoking in Bed” by Argentina’s Mariana Enriquez and “Minor Detail” by Palestinian author Adania Shibli.
Writer Lucy Hughes-Hallett, who heads the judging panel, said a theme of many of the books was “migration — the pain of it, but also the fruitful interconnectedness of the modern world.”