Alberta-born writer Chrystia Freeland’s non-fiction book Plutocrats, which examines the global rise of the super-wealthy, has made the shortlist for the Lionel Gelber Prize. The $15,000 Canadian award celebrates the best English-language non-fiction on foreign affairs.

This year’s five finalists are:

• Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944“1956, Anne Applebaum (Signal/McClelland & Stewart)
• The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics, Paul Bracken (St. Martin’s/Raincoast)
• Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, Chrystia Freeland (Doubleday Canada)
• Ghosts of Empire: Britain’s Legacies in the Modern World, Kwasi Kwarteng (PublicAffairs/Publishers Group Canada)
• From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia, Pankaj Mishra (Doubleday Canada)

The winner of the prize, founded in memory of Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber and co-presented by Foreign Policy magazine, will be announced March 25.