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Cortes Island novelist nominated for Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize

Cortes Island novelist Ruth Ozeki said she’ll celebrate being long-listed for the Man Booker Prize by jumping into the sea. Her Booker-nominated novel, A Tale for the Time Being, is about a diary that washes up on B.C.’s West Coast.
Ruth Ozeki author photo.jpg
Ruth Ozek has been nominated for the IMPAC Dublin award.

Cortes Island novelist Ruth Ozeki said she’ll celebrate being long-listed for the Man Booker Prize by jumping into the sea.

Her Booker-nominated novel, A Tale for the Time Being, is about a diary that washes up on B.C.’s West Coast.

Asked how she’ll celebrate the prestigious nod, Ozeki said Tuesday: “I think I’m going to go swimming in the same beautiful ocean.”

There are 13 authors competing for the prestigious literary award that is open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth. Ozeki learned via email Tuesday she’d made the list.

She said she was proud to be included in the company of such accomplished writers, adding: “All of us should win, any of us should win. … I think we’ve already really won.”

Two Canadian-born expats were also nominated for the prestigious prize: Montreal-born Alison MacLeod’s Unexploded and The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, born in London, Ont.

Ozeki splits her time between Cortes Island and New York. Born in New Haven, Conn., she became a Canadian citizen in 2005.

“I’m a Canadian not by birth, but by choice. … [The nomination] makes me very grateful to be a Canadian,” she said.

A Tale for the Time Being is about a diary washed ashore inside a Hello Kitty lunchbox and the profound effect it has on the writer who discovers it. The novel is populated by earthquake-causing catfish, an ancient Buddhist nun and 16-year-old Nao, who lives in Tokyo.

Canadian books magazine Quill and Quire wrote of A Tale for the Time Being: “In clever and deeply affecting ways, Ruth Ozeki’s luminous new novel explores notions of duality, causation, honour and time.”

Ozeki, 57, worked as a movie art director in New York in the mid-1980s, designing sets and props for low-budget horror films. She went on to become an award-winning filmmaker in her own right before turning to fiction. Her first novel, My Year of Meats (1998), was a commercial and critical success, published in 11 languages in 14 countries.

The Booker Prize list also includes Harvest by Britain’s Jim Crace, Five Star Billionaire by Malaysia’s Tash Aw, and Irish writer Colm Toibin’s The Testament of Mary.

The nominated books are from Britain, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Ireland.

Americans are ineligible for the prize, but several of the books are by U.S.-based writers, including The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri — born in Britain to Indian parents — and TransAtlantic by Ireland-born Colum McCann.

Also on the list are We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo; The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris; The Kills by Richard House; Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson; and Donal Ryan’s The Spinning Heart.

Judging panel chairman Robert Macfarlane said the list was the most diverse in prize history, “wonderfully various in terms of geography, form, length and subject.”

Seven of the books are by women, three are first novels and only two of the writers, Crace and Toibin, are previous Booker finalists.

The organization will announce the shortlist on Sept. 10 and the winner of the $75,000 prize on Oct. 15.

Founded in 1969, the award is officially known as the Man Booker Prize after its sponsor, financial services firm Man Group PLC. Last year’s winner was Hilary Mantel for her Tudor political saga Bring Up the Bodies.

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 http://www.themanbookerprize.com/