LONDON — A chilling, thriller-like account of how a nuclear war might unfold and two award-winning novelists are among finalists announced Thursday for Britain’s leading nonfiction book prize.
American writer Annie Jacobsen’s “Nuclear War: A Scenario” is one of six books shortlisted for the 50,000 pound ($66,000) Baillie Gifford Prize. The book, which the judging panel called “deeply researched and terrifying,” offers a minute-by-minute account of what might happen if a rogue state launched nuclear missiles at the Pentagon.
Australia’s Richard Flanagan, best known as a novelist, is a finalist for his memoir “Question 7.” Flanagan won the Booker Prize for fiction in 2014 for his novel “The Narrow Road to the Deep North.”
U.S. writer Viet Thanh Nguyen, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with his novel “The Sympathizer,” made the list with the autobiographical “A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial.”
The other Baillie Gifford Prize contenders are British biographer Sue Prideaux’s “Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin,” Belgian author David Van Reybrouck’s decolonization history “Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World” and British doctor Rachel Clarke’s medical journey “The Story of a Heart.”
Founded in 1999, the Baillie Gifford Prize recognizes English-language books from any country in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. It has been credited with bringing an eclectic slate of fact-based books to a wider audience.
Last year’s winner was John Vaillant’s real-life climate-change thriller “Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World.”
The winner will be crowned Nov. 19 at a ceremony in London.