Damon Galgut, Colm Toibin among Folio Prize finalists

LONDON (AP) — Novels by Damon Galgut and Colm Toibin are among eight books contending for Britain’s Rathbones Folio Prize for literature. Galgut’s Booker Prize-winning South African story “The Promise” and Toibin’s novel about Thomas Mann, “The Magician,” are on the shortlist announced Wednesday for the 30,000 pound ($41,000) prize, open to both fiction and nonfiction. They are up against four other works of fiction: Natasha Brown’s debut novel “Assembly;” Claire Keegan’s “Small Things Like These;” Gwendoline Riley’s “My Phantoms;” and Sunjeev Sahota’s “China Room.” Contenders also include Selima Hill’s poetry collection “Men Who Feed Pigeons” and Philip Hoare’s nonfiction book “Albert and the Whale” about artist Albrecht Dürer. The winner will be announced on March 23.