David Grann and Siddhartha Mukherjee are among contenders for a prestigious nonfiction prize

Books about the perilous state of our world, our food and our relationship with technology are in the running for Britain’s leading nonfiction book award, the Baillie Gifford Prize. The 13-book longlist announced Wednesday includes John Vaillant’s look at the reality of climate change, “Fire Weather”; Chris van Tulleken’s dietary warning “Ultra Processed People”; and “Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity” by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson. Best-selling American author David Grann is nominated for the stirring seafaring yarn “The Wager,” while physician-writer Siddhartha Mukherjee is in the running with “The Song of the Cell.”