The Booker Prizes announced Tuesday 15 September that Tsitsi Dangarembga is amoung six authors shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize for her work on tense and psychologically charged fiction novel titled 'This Mournable Body.'
We get introduced to Tambudzai, the protagonist who lives in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare and anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job. At every turn in her attempt to make a life for herself, she is faced with a fresh humiliation, until the painful contrast between the future she imagined and her daily reality ultimately drives her to a breaking point.
The shortlist was selected by a panel of five judges: Margaret Busby (chair), editor, literary critic and former publisher; Lee Child, author; Sameer Rahim, author and critic; Lemn Sissay, writer and broadcaster; and Emily Wilson, classicist and translator.
Dangarembga is the author of two previous novels, including Nervous Conditions, winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. She is also a filmmaker, playwright, and the director of the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa Trust. She lives in Harare, Zimbabwe.
The 2020 shortlist was selected from 162 submitted books and the complete list as follows:
Diane Cook (USA), The New Wilderness (Oneworld Publications)
Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe), This Mournable Body (Faber & Faber)
Avni Doshi (USA), Burnt Sugar (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia/USA), The Shadow King (Canongate Books)
Douglas Stuart (Scotland/USA), Shuggie Bain (Picador, Pan Macmillan)
Brandon Taylor (USA), Real Life (Originals, Daunt Books Publishing)
The Booker Prize is a leading literary award in the English speaking world, which has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction for over 50 years. Awarded annually to the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.We are delighted to announce the #2020BookerPrize shortlist. Read more: https://t.co/kj9CbeZtKH
— The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) September 15, 2020
Join us tonight at 5pm BST in a virtual celebration of our #shortlist, livestreamed on our Facebook and YouTube channels. #FinestFiction pic.twitter.com/qpjvKCRXa7
The 2020 shortlist was selected from 162 submitted books and the complete list as follows:
Diane Cook (USA), The New Wilderness (Oneworld Publications)
Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe), This Mournable Body (Faber & Faber)
Avni Doshi (USA), Burnt Sugar (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia/USA), The Shadow King (Canongate Books)
Douglas Stuart (Scotland/USA), Shuggie Bain (Picador, Pan Macmillan)
Brandon Taylor (USA), Real Life (Originals, Daunt Books Publishing)
The long list was announced on 28 July 2020, whilst the shortlist was announced on the 15th of September and the winner will be announced on the 17th of November 2020.