"Gilead's Daughters" is Atwood's long-awaited sequel to "The Handmaid's Story" which, incidentally, was also nominated for the Booker Prize in 1986.
The six finalists are selected from a previous list of 13 names, says the BBC. Salman Rushdie is nominated for "Quichotte", his personal version of "Don Quijote" which Rushdie lets play in today's United States. Among the finalists are also Nigerian Chigozie Obioma whose novel "The Minority Orchestra" was published in Swedish earlier this year.
Other nominees are Lucy Ellmann for "Ducks, Newburyport", Bernardine Evaristo for "Girl, woman, other" and Elif Shafak for "10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world".
The final winner will be presented on October 14.