Man Booker Award shortlist announced: Amitav Ghosh makes it to top ten

Cape Town: Ten writers, including a first-time entry from the tiny French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, have been nominated as finalists for the 2015 Man Booker International prize for fiction writing. [caption id=“attachment_2171911” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Author Amitav Ghosh was shortlisted for Man Booker Award in 2008 for his book Sea of Poppies. Reuters/File image[/caption] The coveted £60,000 prize is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction, either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language. “This is a most interesting and enlightening list of finalists. It brings attention to writers from far and wide, so many of whom are in translation,” Jonathan Taylor, chair of the Booker Prize Foundation, said in a statement on today. The finalists were announced at the University of Cape Town, where Nobel literature winner and two-time Booker winner JM Coetzee teaches. The 2015 Man Booker winner will be announced in London on 19 May. This year’s finalists are: Cesar Aira (Argentina); Hoda Barakat (Lebanon); Maryse Conde; (Guadeloupe); Mia Couto (Mozambique); Amitav Ghosh (India); Fanny Howe (United States of America); Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya); Laszlo Krasznahorkai (Hungary); Alain Mabanckou (Republic of Congo) and Marlene van Niekerk (South Africa). Reuters