Jhumpa Lahiri's 'Lowland' shortlisted for top UK prize

New Delhi: Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian American novelist Jhumpa Lahiri's "Lowland" has been shortlisted for this year's Baileys Prize, the UK's only annual book award for fiction written by a woman.

‘The Lowland’, which is about the lives of brothers Subhash and Udayan, their choices and their fate, was described by Helen Fraser, Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2014 Chair, as "Moving and vivid, an unforgettable story of two brothers and the different paths they take. A novel about how political passion can destroy lives." Earlier known as the Orange Prize, the winner will be announced on June 4 in London and presented with a cheque for USD 30,000.

The other five shortlisted books are ‘Americanah’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria), ‘Burial Rites’ by Hannah  Kent (Australia), ‘The Undertaking’ by Audrey Magee (Ireland), ‘A Girl is a Half-formed Thing’ by Eimear McBride (Ireland) and ‘The Goldfinch’ by Donna Tartt (the US). Adichie had won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010 for ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’. Pakistani author Fatima Bhutto, who figured in the 20-book longlist for her novel ‘The Shadow of the Crescent Moon’, failed to make the cut.

"We are very excited by the books we have chosen for the shortlist. Each one is original and extraordinary in its own way - each offers something different and exciting and illuminating," said Fraser in a statement.

Set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote international fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible, the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2014 is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman. Any woman writing in English - whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter - is eligible. "The Lowland", set in Kolkata and Rhode Island in the US, was also in the Man Booker Prize shortlist.