(London) A Canadian is among the Booker Prize semi-finalists, competing with 12 other authors.

Sarah Bernstein, a Montreal-born author, was selected for Study for Obedience, which the judges described as a “absurd and darkly funny” novel about a woman who moves to a new place and experiences a backlash from the community. community.

Bernstein now lives and teaches in Scotland. Study for Obedience is her second novel after her 2021 debut with The Coming Bad Days.

Among the twelve other authors to be found in the long list of the prestigious prize, we find the Irish writer Sebastian Barry, who has already received four nominations and finished twice in the semi-finals.

Barry is nominated this year for his novel Old God’s Time, about a retired police detective who finds himself embroiled in an investigation into a murdered priest suspected of child sexual abuse.

“The 13 novels shed new light on what it means to exist in our time, and they do so in original and exciting ways,” said Esi Edugyan, chair of the jury based in Victoria, British Columbia.

“Their range is vast, both in subject and form: they shocked us, made us laugh, made us anxious, but above all they stayed with us. »

The winner is expected to be announced on November 26, after the list will be narrowed down to six finalists next month.

Malaysian writer Tan Twan Eng has received his third nomination, this time for The House of Doors, a historical fiction book based on the life of Somerset Maugham.

Paul Murray, another Irish writer, was nominated for The Bee Sting, a tragicomic family saga. This is his second nomination.

Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow’s debut novel, All The Little Bird-Hearts, is about a ruled mother whose carefully ordered life is turned upside down when a lovely couple move in next door. Like its protagonist, Lloyd-Barlow is autistic.

Shehan Karunatilaka, one of Sri Lanka’s most prestigious writers, won the 2022 Booker Prize for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, a tale set during Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war.