LONDON, April 23 — Jesmyn Ward's US National Book Award-winning novel "Sing, Unburied, Sing and Kamila Shamsie's modern retelling of Antigone (and Man Booker longlistee) Home Fire"are among the six books to be shortlisted for the UK Women's Prize for Fiction.

Other books to make the cut are Imogen Hermes Gowar's debut novel The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock; The Idiot by New Yorker journalist Elif Batuman; Sight by Jessie Greengrass, which weaves a woman's personal recollections with medical history; and When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasamy.

A longlist of 16 was whittled down to reach the six finalists; among longlisted books that didn't make the cut are the best-seller Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach, (a follow-up from The Goon Squad) and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy's first novel in 20 years.

The Women's Prize for Fiction celebrates excellence in women's writing from throughout the world. It is open to female authors who have written a full-length novel in English and awards its annual winner £30,000 (RM163,651).

The 2018 winner will be announced on June 6 and will follow on from 2017 winner The Power by Naomi Alderman and Lisa McInerney's 2016 winner The Glorious Heresies. — AFP-Relaxnews

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