Ali Smith, Colm Tóibín en Rachel Cusk op shortlist Folio Prize 2015

'The sole criterion for judgment will be excellence: to identify works of fiction in which the story being told and the subjects being explored achieve their most perfect and thrilling expression,' schrijft de organisatie van de Folio Prize, en 'open to all works of fiction written in English and published in the UK. All genres and all forms of fiction are eligible. The format of first publication may be print or digital'. De eerste editie van de prijs, in 2014, ging naar George Saunders. 

• Ben Lerner, 10:04
• Miriam Toews, All My Puny Sorrows
• Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation
  
• Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Dust
• Akhil Sharma, Family Life
• Ali Smith, How to Be Both
• Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster
• Rachel Cusk, Outline

De jury:

‘This shortlist is the result of months of reading and hours of passionate conversation. The eight books we’ve chosen explore vast themes – time, loss, belonging, war, solitude, marriage and family, the making and the mystery of art – with amazing vitality and grace.

They manage to be both epic and intimate – in fact, they show those dimensions to be two sides of the same coin. They’ve surprised, moved, challenged and enchanted us. They’ve made us laugh. They’ve grown and deepened when we read them again.

But it’s not just the richness and fire of the individual books. We’re excited by the range of ideas, voices and approaches represented here, and by the way our shortlist shows the novel refreshing itself, reaching out for new shapes and strategies, still discovering what it might be, what it might do.

23 maart wordt de winnaar bekendgemaakt.