The finalists for the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding have been revealed, with six books in contention for the award that honors “a nonfiction book that promotes global cultural understanding,” Literary Hub reports.
Tania Branigan made the shortlist for Red Memory: The Afterlives of China’s Cultural Revolution. The book, which focuses on Mao Zedong’s decade-long movement that killed more than a million people, is also a finalist for this year’s Kirkus Prize.
Nandini Das was named a finalist for her history, Courting India: Seventeenth-Century England, Mughal India, and the Origins of Empire, while Daniel Foliard made the shortlist for The Violence of Colonial Photography.
Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation by Kris Manjapra was named a finalist, as was Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living by Dimitris Xygalatas, and Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World, written by Irene Vallejo and translated by Charlotte Whittle.
The British Academy Book Prize was established in 2013. Past winners have included Timothy Garton Ash for Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World and Kapka Kassabova for Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe.
The winner of this year’s award will be announced on Oct. 31.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
