LONDON: Three British writers, two Americans and an Australian are finalists for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction, open to US authors for the first time.

The shortlisted British books, announced on Tuesday, were Ali Smith’s dual-narrative story “How to Be Both”, Howard Jacobson’s futuristic dystopia “J” and Neel Mukherjee’s Calcutta-set “The Lives of Others”.

The US is represented by Joshua Ferris’ cyber-identity tale “To Rise Again at a Decent Hour” and Karen Joy Fowler’s unusual family story “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”.

Australia’s Richard Flanagan has been nominated for “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”, a wartime love story.

Bookmaker William Hill made Mr Jacobson — who won the prize in 2010 for “The Finkler Question” — and Ms Smith the joint 3/1 favourites.

High-profile authors who did not make the cut from the 13-book long-list included Irish-American writer Joseph O’Neill, for “The Dog”, and David Mitchell, for “The Bone Clocks”.

“That’s just how the cards fell,” said philosopher A.C. Grayling, chairman of the judging panel. He said it was a “very, very rich year” for fiction.

This is the first year writers of all nationalities have been eligible for the Booker, previously open only to authors from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth of dozens of former British colonies.

Some British writers have expressed fears that the change in eligibility may lead to US dominance of the 46-year-old award, officially named the Man Booker Prize after its sponsor, financial services firm Man Group PLC.

The winner of the 50,000-pound ($80,000) prize will be announced at a ceremony in London on Oct 14.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2014