The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Man Booker Prize, is a prize for fiction in the UK. The Man Group pulled funding for the prize earlier this year, but huzzah, the prize continues to live. This year’s shortlist includes:

•Margaret Atwood (Canada), The Testaments (Vintage, Chatto & Windus)

•Lucy Ellmann (U.S./U.K.), Ducks, Newburyport (Galley Beggar Press)

•Bernardine Evaristo (U.K.), Girl, Woman, Other (Hamish Hamilton)

•Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria) An Orchestra of Minorities (Little Brown)

•Salman Rushdie (U.K./India) Quichotte (Jonathan Cape)

•Elif Shafak (U.K./Turkey) 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World (Viking)

The winner, who will receive £50,000 ($61,145), will be announced on October 14th. People that follow prize candidate lists, like you, dear reader, were surprised to see Margaret Atwood’s book made the list, as it hasn’t been released yet. Peter Florence, the chair of judges, told the Guardian, 

It was an “extraordinarily complicated process” to get copies of the manuscript, which is protected by a “ferocious” non-disclosure agreement. He could not say more than that it is a “savage and beautiful novel, and it speaks to us today, all around the world, with particular conviction and power. The bar is set particularly high for Atwood and she soars over it,” he said. “I can’t wait for everyone to read it.”

I’ll be back on the 14th to announce the winner. Stay tuned!