Two first-time novelists up for top award
Two first-time novelists have been short-listed for this year’s Man Booker Prize for fiction.
Aravind Adiga, the youngest on the list at the age of 34, and Steve Toltz joined Sebastian Barry, Amitav Ghosh, Linda Grant and Philip Hensher in making the cut.
Barry was shortlisted in 2005 for his novel A Long, Long Way, Grant was longlisted in 2002 for Still Here and Hensher, once a Booker judge himself, was longlisted in 2002 for The Mulberry Empire.
The geographical spread of the list includes two Indian authors, two English authors, an Australian author and an Irish author.
Sir Salman Rushdie, who was on the longlist of 13 books for the Enchantress of Florence, did not make the shortlist.
Michael Portillo, chair of the judges, who announced the shortlist in London, said the decision not to include Sir Salman’s book on the final six was the result of the opinions of five people taken together.
The winner of this year’s 50,000 prize will be announced on October 14.
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