NEW YORK – Novels by Angela Flournoy,Kiran Desai and Megha Majumdar and a memoir by Arundhati Roy are among the finalists for the 12th annual Kirkus Prize, which comes with a $50,000 cash award for winners in fiction, nonfiction and young readers' literature.
Kirkus, the long-running trade publication, announced six nominees in each of the three categories Wednesday.
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Desai's “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” in which an Associated Press reporter is a featured character, is also on the shortlist for the Booker Prize. Flournoy's “The Wilderness" is her first novel since she debuted with “The Turner House” a decade ago, and Majumdar's “A Guardian and a Thief” is her first book since her celebrated debut, “A Burning,” was published in 2020.
Allegra Goodman's “Isola,” Lucas Schafer's “The Slip” and David Szalay's "Flesh" are the other finalists.
Roy's “Mother Mary Comes to Me” is a nonfiction nominee, along with Nicholas Boggs' biography of James Baldwin, “Baldwin: A Love Story;" Imani Perry's “Black in Blues;” Scott Anderson's “King of Kings;” Sophie Elmhurst's “A Marriage at Sea;” and Greg Gandin's “America, America.”
The young readers' finalists are Brian Floca's “Island Storm,” Thao Lam's “Everybelly,” Derrick Barnes' “The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze,” Triinu Laan's “John the Skeleton,” Moa Backe Astot's “Butterfly Heart” and Candace Fleming's “Death in the Jungle.”
Winners will be announced Oct. 8. Previous recipients include Percival Everett, Susan Faludi and Colson Whitehead.