In going from the 13-title longlist to the 6-title shortlist, the Booker Prize judges kept two Americans — Joshua Ferris and Karen Joy Fowler — and left behind a number of heavily touted works as usual (including books by Sirit Hustvedt, David Mitchell, and Richard Powers). Though the prize has often lifted books by independent publishers, this year we already know that Penguin Random House will win. They publish five out of six contenders in the UK, and even on that one outlier — by Fowler — the publishing giant has US rights. Smith’s book is currently set for US release by Pantheon […]
