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US authors Strout, Everett among Booker Prize finalists

FILE - U.S. writer Percival Everett holds his trophy after he was awarded with the Literary Award at the 38th American Film Festival Sept. 5, 2012, in Deauville, Normandy, France. American authors Elizabeth Strout and Percival Everett are up against writers from Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka as finalists for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler, File) (Michel Spingler, Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

LONDON ā€“ American authors Elizabeth Strout and Percival Everett are up against writers from Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka as finalists for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction.

Stroutā€™s symphony of everyday lives ā€œOh William!ā€ and Everettā€™s powerful novel about racism and police violence, ā€œThe Trees,ā€ are on a shortlist announced Tuesday for the 50,000 pound ($58,000) prize.

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The other contenders include Zimbabweā€™s NoViolet Bulawayo, for animal fable ā€œGloryā€; Irish writer Claire Keeganā€™s ā€œSmall Things Like Theseā€; and ā€œThe Seven Moons of Maali Almeidaā€ by Sri Lankaā€™s Shehan Karunatilaka.

British fantasy author Alan Garner ā€” the oldest-ever Booker nominee at 87 ā€” is on the list for ā€œTreacle Walker.ā€

Former British Museum director Neil MacGregor, who is chairing the judging panel, said several of the books are inspired by real events and ā€œaddress long national histories of cruelty and injustice, in Sri Lanka and Ireland, Zimbabwe and the United States.ā€

ā€œSet in different places at different times, they are all about events that in some measure happen everywhere, and concern us all,ā€ he said of the shortlist.

Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize has a reputation for transforming writersā€™ careers and was originally open only to British, Irish and Commonwealth writers. Eligibility was expanded in 2014 to all novels in English published in the U.K.

Last yearā€™s winner was ā€œThe Promise,ā€ by South Africaā€™s Damon Galgut.

The winner will be crowned Oct. 17 at a ceremony in London.


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