Nora Webster and Jenny Offill

Jenny Offill: Tales of troubled families from Kenya and India, the musings of an ironic New York writer and the story of emotionally bruised Canadian siblings are contenders for the Folio Prize, a lucrative fiction award open to English-language authors, according to The Chronicle Herald. The other finalists are U.S. writer Jenny Offill for her exploration of relationships in Dept. of Speculation; Colm Toibin for his tale of an Irish widow, Nora Webster; Scottish writer Ali Smith for her dual-narrative novel How to be Both; and Canada-born British author Rachel Cusk for her story-spinning yarn Outline and The eight finalists for the 40,000 pound $61,000 prize, announced Monday, include Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor Kenyan family epic Dust; Akhil Sharma Indian immigrant story Family Life; Brooklyn-based Ben Lerner autobiographical 10:04; and Canadian author Miriam Toew tragicomic tale of sisterhood, All My Puny Sorrows. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.