Finalists announced for the Man Booker International Prize

Author Alice Munro
Canadian Author Alice Munro won the Man Booker International Prize in 2009.
Peter Morrison | Associated Press 2009

The finalists for the Man Booker International Prize have been announced. The prize recognizes one writer for his or her achievements in fiction.

Unlike the annual Man Booker prize, which is awarded to a specific title, the Man Booker International Prize is awarded every two years and recognizes an author's overall contribution to fiction on the world stage.

In a nod to the increasing popularity of literature in translation, eight of the ten finalists write in a language other than English. The finalists hail from ten countries, six of which have never been represented in the awards before.

The ten finalists are:

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• Cesar Aira, Argentina
• Hoda Barakat, Lebanon
• Maryse Conde, Guadeloupe
• Mia Couto, Mozambique
• Amitav Ghosh, India
• Fanny Howe, United States
• Ibrahim al-Koni, Libya
• Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Hungary
• Alain Mabanckou, Republic of Congo
• Marlene van Niekerk, South Africa

Professor Marina Warner, the chair of the judging panel, announced the finalists at a press conference in South Africa.

"Fiction can enlarge the world for us all and stretch our understanding and our sympathy," Warner said. "The novel today is in fine form: as a field of inquiry, a tribunal of history, a map of the heart, a probe of the psyche, a stimulus to thought, a well of pleasure and a laboratory of language. Truly, we feel closer to the tree of knowledge.'

The winner of the Man Booker International Prize will be announced in May. Previous winners include Lydia Davis, Philip Roth, Alice Munro and Chinua Achebe.