The judges’ selection includes two first time novelists – Stephen Kelman and A.D. Miller – while four of the books are from independent publishers.
Of the six writers, Julian Barnes has been shortlisted three times for Arthur and George (2005), England, England (1998) and Flaubert’s Parrot (1984), while Carol Birch was longlisted in 2003 for Turn Again Home.
The six books selected from the longlist of 13 are:
1. Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending
(Jonathan Cape – Random House)
2. Carol Birch Jamrach’s Menagerie (Canongate Books)
3. Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)
4. Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent’s Tail)
5. Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)
6. A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)
