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September 21 – September 28, 2006 Edition

Six Books Picked

For Man Booker

Prize Shortlist

LONDON/9/18/06­The judging panel for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction last week named six books to its shortlist from a longer list of 19 candidates. The winner will be announced on Tuesday October 10 at an awards ceremony at the Guildhall, London.

The six shortlisted authors and their books are:

– Desai, Kiran, The Inheritance of Loss (Hamish Hamilton)

– Grenville, Kate, The Secret River (Canongate)

– Hyland, M.J., Carry Me Dow (Canongate)

– Matar, Hisham, In the Country of Men (Viking)

– St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk (Picador)

– Waters, Sarah The Night Watch (Virago)

Hermione Lee, Chair of Judges, said, “Each of these novels has what we as judges were most looking for, a distinctive original voice, an audacious imagination that takes readers to undiscovered countries of the mind, a strong power of story-telling and a historical truthfulness. Each of these novels creates a world you inhabit without question or distrust while you are reading, and a mood, an atmosphere, which lasts long after the reading is over.”

The winner receives £50,000 with a guaranteed increase in sales and recognition worldwide. Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives £2,500 and a designer bound edition of their own book.

The judging panel for the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction includes: Hermione Lee (Chair), biographer, academic and a reviewer; Simon Armitage, poet and novelist; Candia McWilliam, award-winning novelist; critic Anthony Quinn; and actor Fiona Shaw.

More information can be found at www.themanbookerprize.com