Folio Prize nominees reflect diversity of writers
Tales of troubled families from Kenya and India, the musings of an ironic New York writer and the story of emotionally bruised Canadian siblings are contenders for the Folio Prize, a lucrative fiction award open to English-language authors of any nationality.
The eight finalists for the $61,000 prize, announced on Monday, include Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor's Kenyan family epic Dust; Akhil Sharma's Indian immigrant story Family Life; Brooklyn-based Ben Lerner's autobiographical 10:04; and Canadian author Miriam Toews' tragicomic tale of sisterhood, All My Puny Sorrows.
The other finalists are US writer Jenny Offill for her compact exploration of relationships in Dept. of Speculation; Colm Toibin for his tale of an Irish widow, Nora Webster; Scottish writer Ali Smith for her dual-narrative novel How to Be Both; and Canada-born British author Rachel Cusk for her story-spinning yarn Outline.
