Chinese writer/director Guo Xiaolu’s debut English novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers made the shortlist of Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, the literature prize for female writers.

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for LoversGuo Xiaolu faces tough competition from other five authors whose novels also made the shortlist, among them are Anne Tyler, the 1989 Pulitzer Prize winner, and Kiran Desai, her The Inheritance of Loss has won the 2006 Man Booker Prize. The shortlist is drawn from a 20 book longlist.

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers tells a story of Z, a Chinese woman comes to UK to study English, using the format of a dictionary and delibrate bad English to reflect the perspective of the protagonist (some comments).

The winner will be picked by a panel chaired by the broadcaster Muriel Gary. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall in London on June 6.

Readers can also participate in the Readers’ Award by voting online.

The shortlist

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun (Fourth Estate)

Rachel Cusk: Arlington Park (Faber & Faber)

Kiran Desai: The Inheritance of Loss (Hamish Hamilton)

Xiaolu Guo: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (Chatto & Windus)

Jane Harris: The Observations (Faber & Faber)

Anne Tyler: Digging to America (Chatto & Windus)