The Lost (Man) Booker Prize Shortlist

THE SHORTLIST for the Lost (Man) Booker Prize for Fiction was announced on March 25, 2010 (Thursday). The shortlist was announced at a special event at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival. The six books are:

1. The Birds on the Trees (Virago) / Nina Bawden
2. Troubles (Phoenix) / J.G. Farrell
3. The Bay of Noon (Virago) / Shirley Hazzard
4. Fire from Heaven (Arrow) / Mary Renault
5. The Driver’s Seat (Penguin) / Muriel Spark
6. The Vivisector (Vintage) / Patrick White

Three of the authors on the shortlist have won or been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. J.G. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur won the Booker in 1973; Muriel Spark was shortlisted for two of her novels, The Public Image (in 1969) and Loitering with Intent (in 1981); Nina Bawden was shortlisted in 1987 for Circles of Deceit. Patrick White, Mary Renault and Shirley Hazzard have never been shortlisted for the (Man) Booker Prize. There are only two living writers among those shortlisted: Nina Bawden and Shirley Hazzard, and both are published by Virago.

The winner of the Lost (Man) Booker Prize will be determined by international voting and will be announced on May 19, 2010