Three African writers have been longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. The award is for a novel written in English by an author from anywhere in the world.
Karen Jennings along with Damon Galgut both from South Africa, Somali-British writer Nadifa Mohamed and ten others made the prestigious list.
Galgut’s nomination is for The Promise themed around South Africa’s history of apartheid, peace and reconciliation.
This is his third time on the longlist.
Jennings’ novel, An Island, is the story of a friendship. The talented South African playwright and novelist Damon Galgut was twice shortlisted for a Booker, in 2006 for The Good Doctor and in 2010 for In a Strange Room.
In a historical narrative from a true story of discrimination against a Somali man in Wales in the 1950s, Mohammed finds voice in The Fortune Men.
In an update, she tweeted that she was shocked and delighted about her nomination.
Two African authors – Maaza Mengiste and Tsitsi Dangarembga made the shortlist in 2020, but neither of them won.
A shortlist of six novels will be announced on September 14, 2021 with those authors each receiving £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book.
The winning novel receives £50,000 and will be announced on November 3, at an award ceremony held in partnership with the BBC at Broadcasting House’s Radio Theatre.
The 2021 longlist:
A Passage North, Anuk Arudpragasam (Granta Books, Granta Publications)
Second Place, Rachel Cusk, (Faber)
The Promise, Damon Galgut, (Chatto & Windus, Vintage, PRH)
The Sweetness of Water, Nathan Harris (Tinder Press, Headline, Hachette Book Group)
Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber)
An Island, Karen Jennings (Holland House Books)
A Town Called Solace, Mary Lawson (Chatto & Windus, Vintage, PRH)
No One is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood (Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury Publishing)
The Fortune Men, Nadifa Mohamed (Viking, Penguin General, PRH)
Bewilderment, Richard Powers (Hutchinson Heinemann, PRH)
China Room, Sunjeev Sahota (Harvill Secker, Vintage, PRH)
Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead (Doubleday, Transworld Publishers, PRH)
Light Perpetual, Francis Spufford (Faber)
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