The Booker Prize 2020 shortlist is the most diverse to date — here's what you need to know

When this year's Booker Prize shortlist was announced, the first thing everyone was talking about was: where is Hilary Mantel? This year's shortlist is notable for featuring four debut novels, and four works by writers of colour, among them Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga, who was arrested in July in Harare for anti-government protests. But the fact that the story follows a woman, not a man, means we The New Wilderness by Diane Cook Cook's dystopian debut novel asks big questions about humanity itself. This novel, the first by someone of Ethiopian descent to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize, is set during the Italian invasion of 1935, and highlights the little-known history of the Ethiopian female fighters who defended their country against Mussolini's forces alongside the men. His life, too, is not easy — a queer boy in an unforgiving landscape — and it's his view of his mother that also shapes the book.