Imaginative fiction reading list: Here are the nine books shortlisted for the Ursula K Le Guin Prize

Akil Kumarasamy, a writer of South Asian descent, is on the shortlist of the $25,000 prize, in its second year.

Jul 16, 2023 - 17:30

Imaginative fiction reading list: Here are the nine books shortlisted for the Ursula K Le Guin Prize

On July 11, the Ursula K Le Guin Prize for Fiction announced the shortlisted titles for this year’s prize. The winning author will receive a cash award of $25,000. The jury comprises William Alexander, Alexander Chee, Karen Joy Fowler, Tochi Onyebuchi, and Shruti Swamy.

Here is the list of the shortlisted titles:

Brother Alive, Zain Khalid

In 1990, three boys are born, unrelated but intertwined by circumstance: Dayo, Iseul, and Youssef. They are adopted as infants and live in a shared bedroom perched atop a mosque in Staten Island. The boys are a conspicuous trio: Dayo is of Nigerian origin, Iseul is Korean and Youssef indeterminately Middle Eastern, but they are so close as to be almost inseparable. Nevertheless, Youssef is keeping a secret from his brothers: he has an imaginary double, a familiar who seems absolutely real, a shapeshifting creature he calls Brother.

The boys’ adoptive father, Imam Salim, is known for his radical sermons extolling the virtues of opting out of Western ideologies. But he is uncharismatic at home, a distant father who spends evenings in his study with whiskey-laced coffee, writing letters to his former compatriots back in Saudi Arabia. Like Youssef, he too has secrets, including the cause of his failing health, the reason...