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[ Read an interview with Val McDermid on what it was like to judge the 2018 Man Booker Prize. ]
The novels selected for this year's selection reflected a concern for dark times and apocalyptic themes such as ecological destruction, slavery and mass incarceration. Among the finalists was "Washington Black" by Canadian writer Esi Edugyan, who tells the story of a boy who fled a slave plantation in Barbados and becomes in a way an apprentice to his master's adventurer brother; Ms. Kushner's "The Mars Room", taking place in a California women's prison; and Mr. Powers' inventive environmental epic, "The Overstory," which aims to save one of the world's last virgin forest areas, in which trees are the true protagonists of the novel.
Judges also recognized unconventional literary forms this year, including, for the first time, Nick Drnaso's graphic novel "Sabrina", which was on the long list but was not a finalist. "The Long Take", a poetry novel written by the genre-defying Scottish poet Robin Robertson, unveiled in the form of verses, prose and photographs, has been selected.
Awarded for the first time in 1969, the Booker is one of the most prestigious and lucrative awards in the world. The winner receives 50,000 pounds, or about $ 65,000, and generally sees a sharp increase in book sales. Past winners include literary titans such as Kazuo Ishiguro; Ben Okri; Hilary Mantel, who has won twice; and Michael Ondaatje, who was selected this year.
In 2014, the award was open to any novel written in English and published in Britain (it was previously reserved for writers from Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Commonwealth countries), and some writers Eminent argued that the rule changes had mitigated the impact of the price.
Fears that the Booker would become "Americanized" have materialized in recent years, after the prize was awarded to American authors two years in a row, to George Saunders in 2017, for "Lincoln in the Bardo" and Paul Beatty . 2016, for "The Sellout". Earlier this year, the Rathbones Folio Academy, a literary society composed of prominent members such as Margaret Atwood, JM Coetzee and Peter Carey, insisted that the change be reversed.
Among this year's finalists were two American novelists, three writers from the UK and one from Canada.
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