Indian author Kiran Desai, who won the Booker Prize and then didn’t publish a novel for almost two decades, is up for the award again with her long-awaited follow-up.
“The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” the 677-page tale of two young Indians making their way in the United States, is one of 13 books announced Tuesday as semifinalists for the prestigious 50,000-pound ($67,000) prize. The contenders include authors from nine countries on four continents.
It’s Desai's first novel since “The Inheritance of Loss,” which won the Booker in 2006.
Two previous finalists are up for the prize again: U.K. writer Andrew Miller, for “The Land in Winter,” and Hungarian-British writer David Szalay for “Flesh.”
Tash Aw, who has been a semifinalist twice before, will be the first Malaysian winner if he takes the prize for “The South.”
Five of the contenders are from Britain: Miller, Szalay, Natasha Brown (“Universality”), Jonathan Buckley (“One Boat”) and Benjamin Wood (“Seascraper”).
Books by U.S. writers in the running include Susan Choi’s “Flashlight,” Katie Kitamura’s “Audition” and Ben Markovits’ “The Rest of Our Lives.”
Also on the list are “Misinterpretation” by Albanian-American Ledia Xhoga, “Love Forms” by Trinidad’s Claire Adam, and “Endling,” a debut novel by Canadian-Ukrainian opera librettist Maria Reva.
“The 13 longlisted novels bring the reader to Hungary, Albania, the north of England, Malaysia, Ukraine, Korea, London, New York, Trinidad and Greece, India and the West Country,” said Irish novelist Roddy Doyle, chair of a five-member judging panel that includes actor Sarah Jessica Parker.
“All, somehow, examine identity, individual or national, and all, I think, are gripping and excellent,” he said.
Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize has a reputation for transforming writers’ careers and is open to novels from any country published in the U.K. and Ireland. Last year’s winner was “Orbital,” by British writer Samantha Harvey.
A list of six finalists will be announced Sept. 23, and this year’s winner will be crowned on Nov. 10 at a ceremony in London.
