The American short story writer George Saunders has won the Man Booker prize for his first full-length novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. Well this tonight is culture, it is international culture, it is compassionate culture, it is activist culture. Saunders is the second American in a row to win the Booker prize, after last year’s winner Paul Beatty. Saunders’ win falls four years after eligibility rules were changed to allow writers of any nationality writing in the English language and published in the UK. With 144 novels submitted for the 2017 prize, Saunders’ novel was among a starry, 13-book longlist, a rarity in recent years as more debuts and less-established authors have been named as contenders.

Source: The Guardian October 17, 2017 20:49 UTC