LONDON: A pair of debut novels, including one in verse, feature among six “miracles of stylistic invention” shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, judges of the British award announced on Thursday.

The Long Take by poet Robin Robertson, commended as “a wholly unique literary voice and form”, became the first book written in verse with photographs to vie for the prestigious prize. It chronicles a World War II veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder unable to return home to rural Nova Scotia and instead seeking refuge and anonymity in urban America.

Meanwhile judges praised the youngest author ever to make the shortlist — 27-year-old Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under — for producing “a modern variation on Sophocles’s Oedipus”.The Man Booker — open to authors of any nationality writing in English and published in the UK and Ireland — this year pits four female writers against two men. The shortlist, whittled down from a longlist of 13, features three Britons, two Americans and Canadian Esi Edugyan.

The Man Booker is the world’s most prestigious English-language literary award with the winner guaranteed a huge increase in global sales that dwarfs the $66,400 prize. The winner will be announced on Oct 16.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2018