The Folio Prize, awarded each March to an outstanding novel written in the English language, has presented its 2015 shortlist:
The shortlist of eight titles revealed spans five countries, and includes five women.
Talking about selection process, chair of judges William Fiennes (pictured above) said:
This shortlist is the result of months of reading and hours of passionate conversation. The eight books we've chosen explore vast themes – time, loss, belonging, war, solitude, marriage and family, the making and the mystery of art – with amazing vitality and grace.
They manage to be both epic and intimate – in fact, they show those dimensions to be two sides of the same coin. They've surprised, moved, challenged and enchanted us. They've made us laugh. They've grown and deepened when we read them again.
But it's not just the richness and fire of the individual books. We're excited by the range of ideas, voices and approaches represented here, and by the way our shortlist shows the novel refreshing itself, reaching out for new shapes and strategies, still discovering what it might be, what it might do.
The 2015 Folio Prize winner will be announced on March 23.
For more news visit the Folio website or follow the prize on Facebook and Twitter.