The shortlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize has been announced, and it pits a former winner against five newcomers to the competition. Having won in 1998 with
Amsterdam, Ian McEwan is back in the mix, his fourth shortlist inclusion, with his latest On Chesil Beach. At fewer than 200 pages, this work is strictly a novella, and as such would not be eligible for the prize, a point that has not gone unnoticed in the literary world. The debate continues, and ArtsWom would not be surprised if some of his fellow competitors were feeling a little aggrieved at this apparent breach of convention.

When the longlist was announced, Mister Pip, the work of Kiwi wordsmith Lloyd Jones was the rank outsider. With its inclusion in the shortlist, however, it has now leapt to become 2/1 favourite, pushing McEwan to second in the betting. These two face competition from Nicola Barker, Mohsin Hamed, Anne Enright and Indra Sinha. It is Barker’s second inclusion in the competition, having been longlisted three years ago for Clear: A Transparent Novel. Whether Darkmans, the chronicle of a girl transfixed with the work of Charles Dickens, will out, only time will tell.

The others in the list include a tale of a Pakistani man living in the US who is fundamentalised following 9/11, the story of a large Irish family coping with the suicide of one of its members, and a fictionalised account of a victim of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster. Chair of the judges, Howard Davies, hopes the list will attract interest and comment after the judges spent many hours of ‘passionate and careful consideration’ to narrow the number down to six. ArtsWom awaits the announcement of the winner of the £50, 000 prize in October with bated breath.