Two Americans Round Out the 2014 Booker Shortlist (With Bonus Links)

Two of the four Americans on the Booker Longlist made it through to the Shortlist, Joshua Ferris and Karen Joy Fowler. They are joined by past winner Howard Jacobson, Australian Richard Flanagan, Indian Neel Mukherjee, and Ali Smith, who has landed on her third shortlist, a fact that may make her the favorite at this point. Big names like David Mitchell and Richard Powers failed to make the cut.

All the Booker Prize shortlisters are below (with bonus links where available):

• To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris (excerpt, Ferris’s Year in Reading 2009)
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (Khaled Hosseini on Karen Joy Fowler)
• J by Howard Jacobson
• The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee
• How to Be Both by Ali Smith (Wordsmith: The Beguiling Gifts of Ali Smith)