Two first-time authors make Man Booker Prize shortlist

Two first-time female authors feature on the 2017 Man Booker Prize fiction shortlist which comprises three women and three men including best-selling US writer Paul Auster.

Subjects this year range from the struggle of a family trying to retain its self-sufficiency in rural England to a love story between two refugees fleeing civil war.

In the fourth year that the 50,000-pound ($66,400) prize has been open to writers of any nationality, the shortlist is made up of two British, one British-Pakistani and three American writers.

Auster’s “4321” offers four versions of one young man’s life while fellow US author Emily Fridlund’s debut novel “History of Wolves” is a coming-of-age tale of a teenage girl seeking a place to belong.

“Elmet,” the first book by British author Fiona Mozley, tells the story of a father and his two children who clash with landowners after they build a home for themselves.

UK/Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid is on the list with “Exit West” in which refugees can use doors to escape to other parts of the world.

George Saunders’ first novel “Lincoln in the Bardo”, is about Abraham Lincoln and the death of his eleven year old son, Willie, at the dawn of the American Civil War.

Scottish writer Ali Smith is on the shortlist for the fourth time, this year with “Autumn,” a meditation on a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive.

The Man Booker Prize is awarded each year for the best original novel, written in the English language and published in the UK. The winner will be announced on Oct. 17 in London’s Guildhall.