William Fiennes and Akhil Sharma

Akhil Sharma: 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, according to 660 News. Writer William Fiennes, who heads the judging panel, said all the finalists had stretched the possibilities of storytelling and 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 of any nationality. The other finalists are U.S. writer Jenny Offill for her compact 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. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.