Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie make Man Booker Prize short list

Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Novels by Margaret Atwood, Lucy Ellmann, Bernardine Evaristo, Chigozie Obioma, Salman Rushdie and Elif Shafak have been shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize for Fiction.

The roster was whittled from 151 submitted books. The six nominated works are Atwood's The Testaments; Ellmann's Ducks; Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other; Obioma's An Orchestra of Minorities; Rushdie's Quichotte and Shafak's 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.

"The common thread is our admiration for the extraordinary ambition of each of these books. There is an abundance of humor, of political and cultural engagement, of stylistic daring and astonishing beauty of language," Chair of Judges Peter Florence said at a press conference at London's British Library on Tuesday morning. "Like all great literature, these books teem with life, with a profound and celebratory humanity. We have a shortlist of six extraordinary books and we could make a case for each of them as winner, but I want to toast all of them as 'winners.' Anyone who reads all six of these books would be enriched and delighted, would be awe-struck by the power of story, and encouraged by what literature can do to set our imaginations free."

The winner of the prize will be announced at a ceremony on Oct. 14 at London's Guildhall.

Atwood's entry is the long-awaited sequel to her 1985 work The Handmaid's Tale, which inspired Hulu's Emmy-winning dystopian drama starring Elisabeth Moss.