Announcing the 2019 Lionel Gelber Prize Shortlist: Exploring Our World Now

TORONTO and WASHINGTON, Jan. 29, 2019 /CNW/ - Patricia Rubin, Chair of The Lionel Gelber Prize Board, announces the following five books which comprise the 2019 Lionel Gelber Prize shortlist:

• No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria by Rania Abouzeid, published by W.W. Norton & Company
  
  
• The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State by Elizabeth C. Economy, published by Oxford University Press
  
  
• How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, published by Crown, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House
  
  
• The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America by Timothy Snyder, published by Tim Duggan Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House
  
  
• Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World by Adam Tooze, published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

"Thank you to our esteemed jurors for these inspired selections—books which explore the deep break in the global system that is happening now: the end of post-war democracy, the revolutionary creation of a new China, the manipulative goals of Putin achieved with Western connivance, the complete destruction of one of the Middle East's most ancient countries, and a new look at the 2008 economic crisis and its aftermath. It is a privilege to present these important titles in collaboration with our partners," said Mrs. Rubin, Chair of The Lionel Gelber Prize Board.

The 2019 Lionel Gelber Prize Jurors are Janice Stein, Jury Chair (Toronto, Canada), Anne Applebaum (Warsaw, Poland and London, England), Sir Lawrence Freedman (London, England), Shalini Randeria (Vienna, Austria and Geneva, Switzerland), and Frank E. Sysyn (Toronto, Canada).

Finalists' Podcasts: Don't miss the Lionel Gelber Prize podcasts, featuring five conversations with the 2019 Prize finalists in conversation with expert interviewer Robert Steiner, Director of the Fellowships in Global Journalism at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Special thanks to Funding Media Partner Focus Asset Management for their support of these podcasts, available on iTunes.

Key Dates: The winner of the 29^th annual Lionel Gelber Prize will be announced on Tuesday, February 26. He or she will give a public lecture in Toronto at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy on Wednesday, April 17, 2019.

A literary award for the world's best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues, the Lionel Gelber Prize was founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber. A cash prize of $15,000 is awarded to the winner. The award is presented annually by The Lionel Gelber Foundation, in partnership with Foreign Policy magazine and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

Jury Comments and Finalists' Biographies: Lionel Gelber Prize website: https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/gelber/
Facebook and Twitter @gelberprize

SOURCE Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy

For further information: Media contact: June Dickenson at [phone] | [e-mail]