The finalists for the 2015 Man Booker International Prize has been announced without a Nigerian author on the list. Announced at the University of Cape Town, South Africa on March 24 by the chair of judges, Professor Marina Warner, there are 10 writers on the list from across the world.
The prize recognises one writer for his or her achievement in fiction. Worth £60,000 to the winner, the 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.
The 10 under consideration for this year’s edition are: César Aira (Argentina), Hoda Barakat (Lebanon), Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe), Mia Couto (Mozambique), Amitav Ghosh (India) and Fanny Howe (United States of America). Others are: Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya), László Krasznahorkai (Hungary), Alain Mabanckou (Republic of Congo) and Marlene van Niekerk (South Africa).
In making the announcement Prof Warner said that the judges have had an exhilarating experience reading for the prize. She explained that they ranged across the world and entered the vision of writers who offer an extraordinary variety of experiences.
Fiction, she said, can enlarge the world for us all and stretch our understanding and our sympathy. “The novel today is in fine form: as a field of inquiry, a tribunal of history, a map of the heart, a probe of the psyche, a stimulus to thought, a well of pleasure and a laboratory of language. Truly, we feel closer to the tree of knowledge,” Warner said.
Among the previous winners have been Lydia Davis (2013), Philip Roth (2011), Alice Munro (2009), Chinua Achebe (2007) and Ismail Kadare (2005).
The 2015 winner will be announced in London on 19 May.
