Margaret Atwood lands on longlist for Bailey fiction prize
Maddadam is the latest in a series of books chronicling a dystopic future
Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam is one of two Canadian books on the longlist of the prestigious Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.
The British award, formerly known as the Orange Prize, honours women writing in English.
The other Canadian entry is The Bear by Claire Cameron, who resides in Toronto. The novel is about a young girl who must fend for herself and her little brother after a bear attack.
MaddAddam marks the third book in Atwood's series centred on a dystopic future, beginning with Oryx and Crake followed by The Year of the Flood.
The 2014 longlist has seven US authors, including Donna Tartt for The Goldfinch, four UK writers as well as novelists from countries including Ireland, Canada and Nigeria.
Two previous Orange Prize winners are also on the list of 20: American author Suzanne Berne for The Dogs of Littlefield and Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Americanah.
Berne nabbed the award for A Crime in the Neighbourhood (1999) and Adichie for Half a Yellow Sun (2007).
Some of other nominees of note include Canadian-born Eleanor Catton's second novel The Luminaries, which won the Booker prize in October 2013 and also Canada'sGovernor General's literary award for fiction in 2013, and Fatima Bhutto, niece of the late Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is longlisted for her debut novel The Shadow Of The Crescent Moon. Catton was raised in New Zealand and still lives there.
"The judges feel this is a fantastic selection of books of the highest quality that you would want to press on your friends,” said the chair of the judging panel, Helen Fraser.
The panel included columnist and author Caitlin Moran, TV host Sophie Raworth and Mary Beard, a professor of classics at the University of Cambridge.
The shortlist will be announced on April 7 and the winner, who will also receive £30,000 ($55,650) will be unveiled in London on June 4.