(Strout’s on a roll this month Random House is publishing her new novel, Lucy by the Sea.) The six finalists include Glory, by Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo, a satire that probes the persistent political struggles in Africa Small Things Like These, by Irish virtuoso Claire Keegan, shaped by the Troubles and driven by pressing questions of morality octogenarian Alan Garner’s genre-bending Treacle Walker and works from two veteran American writers, Percival Everett’s Trees and Elizabeth Strout’s Oh, William!, the most recent installment in her Lucy Barton series, which strips away the illusions we place on ourselves, and on those we love most. There’s not just one English, MacGregor opined, but many Englishes, enriching and expanding our literary culture. In his prefatory remarks, Neil MacGregor, the chair of the committee, underscored the lush diversity of our common language, its “tyranny offset” by tributaries flowing from other languages and a global wealth of cultures. Damn the pandemic awards season ahead! On Tuesday, September 6, amid the clink of champagne flutes, the Booker Prizes announced six novels on its shortlist, citing how each conjures its own universe, playing with form to enlarge our sense of the human and the possible.
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