Nevertheless, his story of an unnamed father and son after an unnamed Armageddon, shambling ever southwards in an unnamed country, gradually conjures a compelling and memorable dread.

ECONOMIST: New fiction

In The Ballad of Lee Cotton, Christopher Wilson tells the story of the son of a mixed-race mother and Icelandic father, whose background - which makes him white - sets him apart from his friends in Eureka, Mississippi.

BBC: NEWS | Entertainment | Hornby on track for novel prize

The son of a white mother and an African father, he drew on his own life story for the themes that drove his campaign: hope, change and that anything is possible in America.

FORBES: Election 2008