The shortlisted titles include novels and novellas from authors and translators spanning four continents, with stories that range from Japanese-controlled 1930s Taiwan to the streets of Tehran in 1979.

A federal appeals court has canceled plea deals with three men accused of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, deepening the legal morass surrounding the long-stalled case.

Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia at 15 in 2006, is known in the Catholic Church as "God's influencer" for harnessing technology to spread the word about miracles.