Man Booker shortlist revealed

From the Bookseller

Shortlisted are: NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names (Chatto), Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries (Granta), Jim Crace's Harvest (Picador), Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland (Bloomsbury), Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being (Canongate) and Colm Toibin's The Testament of Mary (Viking).

Read reviews for all six shortlisted novels on We Love This Book.

Two writers have previously been shortlisted: Jim Crace in 1997 for Quarantine, and Colm Tóibín for The Blackwater Lightship in 1999 and in 2004 with The Master. Catton, who will be 28 by the date of the winner announcement, is the youngest on the shortlist.

Chair of judges Robert Macfarlane told this morning's press conference: "We looked for books that sought to extend the power and possibility of the form. THis is in keeping with the history of the novel. We wanted novel novels." He added: "The judging process has been more UN than Dodge City. Our tools were evidence, advocacy and debate."