Man Booker Prize

Just half a dozen authors remain in contention for the prestigious fiction award: Anna Burns, Esi Edugyan, Daisy Johnson, Rachel Kushner, Richard Powers and Robin Robertson.

The 2017 nominees for the U.K.'s top literary prize include a hefty dose of marquee authors, such as Paul Auster. But the list also features a pair of debuts, from Emily Fridlund and Fiona Mozley.

One-third of the short-listed nominees are American, which could make some British authors unhappy.

Thirteen novels are in the hunt for the Man Booker Prize, the U.K.'s biggest literary award. The Booker is open to Americans for only the second year, and this year's list pits rookies against titans.

The head of the judge's committee says The Narrow Road to the Deep North, the story of POWs in World War II forced to build the Thailand Burma Railway, is a "magnificent novel of love and war."

The prominent literary prize narrowed its nominees to 20 writers — a mix of heavyweights and many new ones. And across the Atlantic, Richard Flanagan won Britain's biggest award, the Man Booker Prize.

News reports say books by several writers have been banned by Chinese authorities, in apparent censorship orders now circulating online.