Pakistan-born writer Mohsin Hamid has made it to The Man Booker Prize shortlist for the second time. Seven years ago his The Reluctant Fundamentalist made it into the same round.
His fourth novel, Exit West, is competing for Booker with five other well-known and new writers: Paul Auster (4321), Emily Fridlund (History of Wolves), Fiona Mozley (Elmet), George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo) and Ali Smith (Autumn). The winner of the 50,000-pound (US$65,000) prize will be announced on October 17.
This year’s judges, chaired by Baroness Lola Young announced the authors short-listed for the top award. “With six unique and intrepid books that collectively push against the borders of convention, this year’s shortlist both acknowledges established authors and introduces new voices to the literary stage,” she said.
Home Fire, written by Pakistan-born Kamila Shamsie and India’s Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness did not make it to the shortlist
Home Fire, written by Pakistan-born Kamila Shamsie and Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness were in the longlist. No works by Canadian writers appeared in the list.
Hamid has written four novels, Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, and Exit West, and a book of essays, Discontent and Its Civilizations.
The novel narrates the story of a young couple in an unnamed country. Their city collapses around them and they are forced to join a wave of migrants fleeing for their lives.
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Hamid spent half his life there and the remaining in New York, California, and London.
Director Mira Nair made The Reluctant Fundamentalist into a film in 2012 with Riz Ahmed and Kate Hudson in the leading roles.
The six judges said the process of whittling down the longlist of 13 books to the shortlist of six had been a very difficult but interesting process. “There were robust discussions,” Baroness Young said, with another judge good humouredly quipping that there had been “fighting” before a final list could be agreed upon.
