LONDON — Celebrated South African novelist J.M. Coetzee and U.S. Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout are among the contenders for Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize for fiction.
Coetzee’s “The Schooldays of Jesus” and Strout’s “My Name is Lucy Barton” are on a 13-book longlist announced Wednesday.
The list includes four first-time novelists — David Means, Wyl Menmuir, Otessa Moshfegh and Virginia Reeves — alongside established authors such as A.K. Kennedy and Deborah Levy.
The list includes five American authors. Previously open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, the Booker expanded in 2014 to include all English-language authors. Despite fears of U.S. dominance, there has not yet been an American winner.
Six finalists will be announced Sept. 13 and the winner of the 50,000 pound ($65,000) prize will be named Oct. 25. TVJ