Man Booker Prize announces six-title shortlist

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Peter Carey, Andrea Levy, and Tom McCarthy are among the six authors to make the Man Booker Prize shortlist, which was announced September 7 during a press conference in London.

Still in the running for the 2010 prize are Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America, Emma Donoghue's Room, Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room, Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question, Andrea Levy's T he Long Song, and Tom McCarthy's C.

The shortlist was pulled from a longlist of 13 titles, called the "Booker Dozen," which was announced in July. Among titles that did not make the cut are Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap, which became the best-selling of the nominated titles in the UK after the longlist announcement, and David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, seen by many as a strong contender for the prize.

Other titles that didn't make the list included Lisa Moore's February, Paul Murray's Skippy Dies, Rose Tremain's Trespass, and Alan Warner's The Stars in the Bright Sky.

2010 Man Booker Prize shortlist:

Peter Carey (UK)- Parrot and Olivier in America
Emma Donoghue (Ireland) - Room
Damon Galgut (South Africa) - In a Strange Room
Howard Jacobson (UK) - The Finkler Question
Andrea Levy (UK) - The Long Song
Tom McCarthy (UK) - C


Of the authors to make the shortlist, Peter Carey is the only one to have previously won the prize; he is also one of only two authors to ever have won the prize twice, in 1988 and 2001. Damun Galgut has been previously shortlisted and Howard Jacobson has been longlisted twice.

The prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction is awarded annually to an English-language novel from an author hailing from either the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner receives £50,000 (€59,800), while each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives £2,500 (€2990). Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall took the prize in 2009.

The 2010 winner will be announced on October 12 in London. Fans can keep up with the status of the awards via Twitter or through a newly launched Man Booker Prize application for iOS, which also includes audio and video content and a GPS feature.

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/man-booker-prize