Two African Writers Longlisted For The 2020 Booker Prize
Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe) and Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia/USA) have both been longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction.
Tsitsi Dangaremgba for her book, “This Mournable Body” and Maaza Mengiste for her book, “The Shadow King”.
The 2020 longlist or the 'The Booker Dozen' was announced last night. 13 books including books by both writers made it to the list.
They were chosen out of 162 novels published in the UK or Ireland between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020.
This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangaremgba is a sequel to her earlier published works Nervous Conditions (1988) and The Book of Not (2016), even though it can be read as a standalone novel. Described as a masterpiece, it is a searing novel about the obstacles facing women in Zimbabwe.
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste described by the New York Times Review as “Lyrical, remarkable... breathtakingly skillful…” is a gripping novel set during Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia. It takes us back to the first real conflict of World War II, casting light on the women soldiers who were left out of the historical record.
“Each of these books carries an impact that has earned it a place on the longlist, deserving of wide readership.” Magaret Busby, Chair of the 2020 judges says in part about the selected books.
The shortlist of six books for the prize will be announced Tuesday, 15 September and the winner announced in November. The winner of the 2020 Booker Prize receives £50,000 and can expect international recognition. The shortlisted authors each receive £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book.
Recall that Nigerian-British author “Bernardine Evaristo” for “Girl, Woman, Other” won the 2019 Booker Prize jointly with Margaret Atwood for “The Testaments”. Other African writers like Chigozie Obioma, Oyinkan Braithwaithe have previously been longlisted/shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Congratulations and good luck to them.
See full longlist below:
Diane Cook (USA) for The New Wilderness (Oneworld Publications)
Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe) for This Mournable Body (Faber & Faber)
Avni Doshi (USA) for Burnt Sugar (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
Gabriel Krauze (UK) for Who They Was (4th Estate, HarperCollins)
Hilary Mantel (UK) for The Mirror & The Light (4th Estate, HarperCollins)
Colum McCann (Ireland/USA) for Apeirogon (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia/USA) for The Shadow King (Canongate Books)
Kiley Reid (USA) for Such a Fun Age (Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury Publishing)
Brandon Taylor (USA) for Real Life (Originals, Daunt Books Publishing)
Anne Tyler (USA) for Redhead by The Side of The Road (Chatto & Windus, Vintage)
Douglas Stuart (Scotland/USA) for Shuggie Bain (Picador, Pan Macmillan)
Sophie Ward (UK) for Love and Other Thought Experiments (Corsair, Little, Brown)
C Pam Zhang (USA) for How Much of These Hills is Gold (Virago, Little, Brown)
