New Talent to the Fore in Man Booker Prize Shortlist

The shortlist also features debut novelist Ottessa Moshfegh (Eileen), fellow USA author Paul Beatty (The Sellout), Canadian-British writer David Szalay (All That Man Is) and Canadian Madeleine Thien (Do Not Say We Have Nothing).

Debut novelist Ottessa Moshfegh, a USA writer, has also made this year’s list for Eileen.

A thriller about a brutal Highlands murder by the cult Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet is tipped to win the Man Booker Prize for fiction after the judges excluded a number of established authors from the shortlist.

The 2016 victor will be announced on Tuesday 25 October in London’s Guildhall, at a black-tie dinner that brings together the shortlisted authors and well-known figures from the literary world.

Ms Levy is the only one among them who has previously been shortlisted for the Man Booker prize, for her novel Swimming Home in 2012, which was also shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize.

USA author Moshfegh is shortlisted for her debut novel.

Chair of the judges, Dr Amanda Foreman, announced the names that shall compete for the £50,000 prize.

The 2016 Shortlist for the Man Booker Prize has been unveiled, and once again it makes for some interesting reading. Last year’s award went to Marlon James for his much lauded novel A Brief History of Seven Killings.

However, “His Bloody Project” by Graeme Macrae Burnet, from a tiny Scottish publisher with only two staff, is now available to US book buyers via Kindle. This year’s shortlist was chosen by a panel of five judges from 155 submissions published between 1 October 2015 and 30 September 2016.

Each author on the shortlist receives £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book.

In the world of literary prizes Britain’s Man Booker stands out as one of the most prestigious and lucrative. Despite fears of US dominance, there hasn’t yet been an American winner of the prize, which usually brings the victor a huge boost in sales and profile.

Previous winners of the prize include Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall, Salman Rushdie for Midnight’s Children and Michael Ondaatje for The English Patient. Previously, the prize was open only to authors from the UK & Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe. “Broadly, the arc of the book traces the course of life from the onset of adulthood – marked here by the sexual awakening of adolescence – to old age and impending death”.