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Mantel, Evaristo among finalists for fiction’s Women’s Prize

Apr 21, 2020 | 2:58 PM

LONDON — Hilary Mantel’s Tudor blockbuster “The Mirror and the Light” and Bernardine Evaristo’s tapestry of black women’s stories, “Girl, Woman, Other,” are among six finalists for the international Women’s Prize for Fiction.

The finalists announced Tuesday also include Natalie Haynes’ female-centred retelling of the Trojan War, “A Thousand Ships,” and Maggie O’Farrell’s Shakespeare-inspired “Hamnet.”

Nominated alongside the four U.K. writers are American authors Angie Cruz for the New York-set coming-of-age story “Dominicana” and Jenny Offill for the climate-anxiety comedy “Weather.”

Entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox, who is chairing the judging panel, said the six books provided a chance to “connect with the outside world” during the lockdowns prompted by the coronavirus-pandemic.