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Petina Gappah's Guardian First Book-winning collection An Elegy for Easterly (Faber) is the only fiction title to make the book shortlist for this year's Orwell Prize for political writing, facing competition from non-fiction titles on Alzheimer's, Salman Rushdie and the eastern provinces of Turkey.
Andrea Gillies' Keeper (Short Books), From Fatwa to Jihad by Kenan Malik (Atlantic) and Christopher De Bellaigue's Rebel Land (Bloomsbury) have all made the six-strong list.
Director of the prize, Jean Seaton, said: "The Orwell injunction to go and see and report, whether at home or abroad, marks all these books. They are beautifully written pieces that translate important contemporary experiences into vivid quandaries—all of these books ask us to make our minds up, and do something."
The winner of the £3,000 book, journalism and blog prizes will be announced on 19th May at a ceremony at Church House, Westminster.
The shortlist in full:
Rebel Land: Among Turkey's Forgotten Peoples by Christopher De Bellaigue (Bloomsbury)
An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah (Faber)
Keeper by Andrea Gillies (Short Books)
Freedom For Sale: How We Made Money and Lost Our Liberty by John Kampfner (Simon & Schuster)
From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Legacy by Kenan Malik (Atlantic Books)
It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower by Michela Wrong (Fourth Estate)