Belfast author Anna Burns has made the shortlist for the 2018 Man Booker Prize.
The list announced this morning includes the Antrim native, two writers from Britain, two from the US and one from Canada.
However, there was disappointment for Irish authors Donal Ryan and Sally Rooney - both of whom were among 13 names on the original longlist, released in July.
The shortlist features two men and four women, covering a diverse range of subjects from an 11-year-old slave escaping a Barbados sugar plantation, to a young woman experience of life in Belfast during the Troubles.
- Anna Burns (UK) Milkman (Faber & Faber)
- Esi Edugyan (Canada) Washington Black (Serpent’s Tail)
- Daisy Johnson (UK) Everything Under (Jonathan Cape)
- Rachel Kushner (USA) The Mars Room (Jonathan Cape)
- Richard Powers (USA) The Overstory (William Heinemann)
- Robin Robertson (UK) The Long Take (Picador)
This morning, the chair of the judges Kwame Anthony Appiah said each of the novels on the final list provide "miracles of stylistic invention."
"In each of them the language takes centre stage," he said. "And yet in every other respect they are remarkably diverse, exploring a multitude of subjects ranging across space and time."
"From Ireland to California, in Barbados and the Arctic, they inhabit worlds that not everyone will have been to, but which we can all be enriched by getting to know.
"Each one explores the anatomy of pain - among the incarcerated and on a slave plantation, in a society fractured by sectarian violence, and even in the natural world.
"But there are also in each of them moments of hope."
The prize is open to writers of any nationality - provided their work is in English and is published in the UK and Ireland.
The winner of the £50,000 (€56,428) will be announced in London on Tuesday October 16th.
We are pleased to announce our #ManBooker2018 shortlist. Read more about the list here: https://t.co/iL5pmgKpaZ pic.twitter.com/oseLM53vGE
— Man Booker Prize (@ManBookerPrize) September 20, 2018
