International Booker prize shortlist led by books ‘pushing the boundaries’ of fiction

Writers including Maria Stepanova and Eric Vuillard are up for the 50,000 prize, with the judges swaying for essays and autofiction over good, straightforward, old-fashioned novels'

From Maria Stepanova's family memoir to a historical essay by Eric Vuillard, this year's shortlist for the International Booker prize for translated fiction is highlighting works that are really pushing the boundaries" of fiction and nonfiction.

The International Booker goes to the finest fiction from around the world" that has been translated into English. Six books are now in the running for the 50,000 award, which is split equally between author and translator, all of them displaying an extraordinary amount of ingenuity and originality", said chair of judges Lucy Hughes-Hallett.