Man Booker Prize shortlist

Several of the favourites failed to make the Man-Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist yesterday, as Louise Jury in The Independent reports.

The selection surprised commentators. John Sutherland, last year's chairman and author of How to Read a Novel, said it was a "bizarre" list that might signal a changing of the literary guard. "If you compare it with last year, the average age is five or 10 years younger. What we may be seeing is a turning of the tide, the older generation giving way to the new."

The six shortlisted books were chosen from a longlist of 19 and are:

• Kiran Desai - The Inheritance of Loss
  
• Kate Grenville - The Secret River
  
• M.J. Hyland - Carry Me Down
  
• Hisham Matar - In the Country of Men
  
• Edward St Aubyn Mother’s Milk
  
• Sarah Waters - The Night Watch

The winner will be announced on Tuesday 10th October.