Hilary Mantel, Michael Ondaatje, George Saunders among contenders for best Man Booker Prize winner

Britain’s Hilary Mantel, Canada’s Michael Ondaatje and American author George Saunders are among five contenders for the title of greatest-ever winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction. [caption id=“attachment_4484359” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Clockwise: Penelope Lively’s Moon Tiger, VS Naipaul’s In a Free State, George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. Facebook[/caption] Mantel’s Tudor saga Wolf Hall, Ondaatje’s multilayered romance The English Patient and Saunders’ Civil War-era symphony Lincoln in the Bardo are finalists for the Golden Man Booker Prize. Also nominated are In a Free State by Trinidad-born Nobel Prize winner VS Naipaul and Moon Tiger by Britain’s Penelope Lively. The list was announced on 26 May. A panel of judges selected one book from each decade since the prize was founded in 1969. A public vote will decide the ultimate winner, to be announced on 8 July. The prize was originally open to British, Irish and Commonwealth writers. Americans have been eligible since 2014.