Booker Prize

The prestigious award was given to The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, which the judges hailed as "a searing, mordantly funny satire set amid the murderous mayhem of a Sri Lanka beset by civil war."

Among the six authors who made the Booker Prize shortlist are Elizabeth Strout, NoViolet Bulawayo and Percival Everett. The winner will be announced in October.

Shuggie Bain is "a moving, immersive and nuanced portrait of a tight-knit social world, its people and its values," the judges wrote. Stuart based the book on his childhood in Glasgow, Scotland.

Atwood made the list for her sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, and Rushdie for his reimagining of Don Quixote. Chigozie Obioma, Elif Shafak, Lucy Ellmann and Bernardine Evaristo round out the finalists.

It's the second year in a row that an American writer has taken home the prestigious literary award.