The Booker Prize Shortlist Is Announced

J.M. Coetzee from South Africa is eager to be the first three-time winner of the Man Booker Prize. This year he is in the running with his novel, "Summertime." The fictional memoir is about a writer working on a biography of the late author John Coetzee. He has previously won the Booker in 1983 for "Life & Times of Michael K.," and in 1999 with "Disgrace."

He goes up against A.S. Byatt and her novel, "The Children's Book," a family saga where an author writes a private book for each of her children including family mysteries. She won the Booker in 1990 for "Possession."They are on the shortlist this year with "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters, making her third appearance, "The Quickening Maze" by Adam Foulds, the youngest at 34; "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel the favorite by bookmakers; and "The Glass Room" by Simon Mawer.

The winner will be announced Oct. 6 for the 50,000 pounds (around $80,000) fiction award. The award was founded in 1969 as the Booker Prize. The award is only given to any English Language, full-length original novel, written by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland or Zimbabwe. It was renamed the Man Booker Prize several years ago when Man Group PLC began sponsoring it.