The shortlist for the 2014 Man Booker Prize has been announced, and includes, for the first time in the prize's history, writers from outside the U.K and Commonwealth. Two Americans made the cut—Joshua Ferris, author of To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, and Karen Joy Fowler, for We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.
The remainder of the shortlist includes Richard Flanagan (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), Howard Jacobson (J), Neel Mukherjee (The Lives of Others), and Ali Smith (How to be Both). The finalists were selected from a longlist of 13, revealed in July.
The rules of the prize changed at the end of 2013, opening up to writers beyond the U.K., in order to, according to Jonathan Taylor, chairman of the trustees, embrace "the freedom of English in all its vigor, its vitality, its versatility and its glory wherever it may be."
The shortlisted authors each receive £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book. The winner of the prize, announced October 14, will receive another £50,000.
