Saunders' first novel "Lincoln in the Bardo" is about former US president Abraham Lincoln and the death of his 11-year-old son, Willie, at the dawn of the American Civil War. He is the second American writer to win Britain's prestigious prize.
Azar Nafisi, the renowned Iranian-American author, is most famous for her book “Reading Lolita in Tehran”. She reflects on similarities between Iran and the United States and on the importance of culture and education in a healthy democracy.