Booker Prize: British author Hilary Mantel up for third prize as 2020 longlist announced

Mantel's 'The Mirror & The Light', the conclusion to her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, is one of 13 books nominated for this year's Booker Prize award. Photo: Handout

Eight debut novelists came up against veterans Hilary Mantel and Tsitsi Dangarembga when Britain unveiled a US-dominated longlist of finalists Tuesday for its revered Booker Prize.

One of the world's most celebrated literary competitions tore up the rule book last year by splitting the fiction award between Canada's Margaret Atwood and Anglo-Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo.