Baillie Gifford Prize 2021 shortlist announced

18 October 2021 Books+Publishing

In the UK, the shortlist for this year’s Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, has been announced.

The six shortlisted books are:

Islands of Abandonment: Life in the post-human landscape (Cal Flyn, HarperCollins)
Aftermath: Life in the fallout of the Third Reich, 1945–1955 (Harald Jähner, trans by Shaun Whiteside, W H Allen)
Empire of Pain: The secret history of the Sackler dynasty (Patrick Radden Keefe, Picador)
Things I Have Withheld (Kei Miller, Canongate)
Fall: The mystery of Robert Maxwell (John Preston, Viking)
Free: Coming of age at the end of history (Lea Ypi, Allen Lane).

The winner of the £50,000 (A$92,700) prize will be announced on 16 November.

All works of nonfiction by authors of any nationality are eligible for the award, which is the richest prize for nonfiction in the UK.

For more information about the prize, see the website.