Booker Prize shortlist announced NEWS
Surprisingly, two debut novelists have been announced as hopefuls, while the former Booker Prize winner Alan Hollinghurst's widely-tipped and highly-praised novel did not make the short list.
Hollinghurst's novel The Stranger's Child was one of the favourites expected to take the 2011 Man Booker Prize, yet the story of a bisexual poet killed in WW1 was passed over by the judges.
The Man Booker Prize panel this year is chaired by former MI5 director Dame Stella Rimington and the panel have chosen two debut novels for contention. Stephen Kelman's Pigeon English, inspired by the murder of Damilola Taylor, and journalist-come-novelist AD Miller's Snowdrops is a crime story set in Moscow.
'Inevitably it was hard to whittle down the longlist to six titles,' said Rimington. 'We were sorry to lose some great books. But, when push came to shove, we quickly agreed that these six very different titles were the best.'
Receiving a fourth chance to win the Booker Prize, Julian Barnes has been shortlisted for his 150 page novella titled The Sense of an Ending, which tells of a middle-aged man reflecting on his days of youth. In the past, Barnes has described the Booker as 'posh bingo' and has been shortlisted three times for the prestigious prize but has yet to win.
Nominated in 2005, 1998 and 1984, Barnes has said previously that the period of anticipation before the winner is decided 'usually produces some psychosomatic malady - a throbbing boil, a burning wire of neuralgia, the proud of gout'.
Carol Birch's 11th novel is also a contender; Jamrach's Menagerie is a story set in the 19th century which tells of a doomed expedition to capture a dragon.
Completing the shortlist are two Canadian authors, Patrick deWitt and Esi Edugyan. DeWitt's The Sisters Brothers, his second novel, is a story of two hired hitmen in the age of the American gold rush. Edugyan's novel Half Blood Blues examines the disappearance of German jazz trumpeter Hieronymous 'Hiero' Falk who vanished during the second world war.
'As a young writing student I remember eagerly awaiting the Man Booker shortlist each year and reading as many of titles as possible,' said Edugyan. 'There was a real sense of ritual to it, it was a very meaningful act to me. I am amazed and deeply honoured to be shortlisted for this award.'
'Edugyan's Half Blood Blues, particularly, would make a very deserving winner.' said Jonathan Ruppin at independent book chain Foyles.
The winner of the Man Booker Prize 2011 will be announced on October 18.
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