LONDON (AP) Jim Crace, Tash Aw and Colm Toibin are among 13 authors competing for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction in a field, announced Tuesday, that's heavy with new writing talent.
"Harvest" by Britain's Crace, "Five Star Billionaire" by Malaysia's Aw and Irish writer Toibin's "The Testament of Mary" are among nominated books from Britain, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Ireland.
Americans are ineligible for the prize, which is open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth. But several of the books are by U.S.-based writers, including "The Lowland" by Jhumpa Lahiri born in Britain to Indian parents and "TransAtlantic" by Ireland-born Colum McCann.
Also on the list are "We Need New Names" by NoViolet Bulawayo; "The Luminaries" by Eleanor Catton; "The Marrying of Chani Kaufman" by Eve Harris; "The Kills" by Richard House; Alison MacLeod's "Unexploded"; "Almost English" by Charlotte Mendelson; "A Tale for the Time Being" by Ruth Ozeki; and Donal Ryan's "The Spinning Heart."
Judging panel chair Robert Macfarlane said the list was the most diverse in prize history, "wonderfully various in terms of geography, form, length and subject."
