The six novels on the Booker Prize shortlist for 2023 have been announced. It stars two Americans, Jonathan Escoffery and Paul Harding, as well as three writers named Paul. None of the finalists has ever been considered for the award.

“This year’s novels offer a full range of lived experience,” novelist Esi Edugyan, chair of the judging panel, said at a news conference Thursday. “The books refuse easy categorization. No one voice, no one vision dominates.”

The yearly award, which is among the most renowned in the world, began as the British equivalent to France’s Prix Goncourt, with only Commonwealth authors eligible. It became available to any longform work of fiction produced in English and published in the United Kingdom or, as of 2018, Ireland in 2014.

In August, the longlist of 13 titles was announced. In late November, the winner will be announced.

Here are this year’s finalists:

‘The Bee Sting,’ by Paul Murray

Murray‘s latest book is a 650-page epic about the disintegration of a once-prosperous family. “Although Murray is a fantastically witty writer, his empathy with these characters is so deep that he can convey the comedy of their foibles without the condescending bitterness of satire,” observed Ron Charles of the Washington Post. His mastery over their lives is so precise that he can remove every ruse and falsehood without ruining a surprise.”

‘This Other Eden,’ by Paul Harding

Harding’s novel, also longlisted for the National Book Award, is based on a true story about a mixed-race island settlement off the coast of Maine in the early twentieth century. “Long, cascading sentences sometimes loop back on themselves to add salient details; others rush forward to encapsulate as much complexity as they can,” Wendy Smith said in The Washington Post review.

‘If I Survive You,’ by Jonathan Escoffery

Escoffery’s debut collection of linked pieces about a Jamaican-American family living in Miami is also the sole collection of short fiction that made the shortlist. Last year, he told Bomb Magazine, “one thing the book does is trouble the idea of a unified identity that remains consistent throughout a lifetime.” Identity shifts.”

‘Western Lane,’ by Chetna Maroo

Gopi, an 11-year-old girl, copes with her mother’s death by playing squash in Maroo’s debut novel. When Maroo lost track of her protagonist’s voice, she returned to the first page, which she described as “a tuning fork.”

‘Prophet Song,’ by Paul Lynch

Lynch’s dystopia — written without paragraph breaks, and imagining an Ireland that has descended into illiberalism — has drawn comparisons to writers including Cormac McCarthy and Anna Burns.

‘Study for Obedience,’ by Sarah Bernstein

Bernstein, who was born in Canada, was named in 2023 to Granta’s list of the Best Young British Novelists. In her second novel, a woman moves to a rural location to run her brother’s house after his marriage falls apart. The residents of the surrounding town, on the other hand, view the protagonist with suspicion, if not animosity, especially when odd things begin to happen to the local animals and crops soon after she arrives.