Australian author Steve Toltz has been shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize for his novel A Fraction of the Whole (Hamish Hamilton).

Toltz is joined on the shortlist by Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger, Atlantic) who has lived in Australia, meaning Australian-affiliated authors make up a third of the shortlist. Both Adiga and Toltz are first-time novelists.

The shortlisted titles are:

• The Clothes on Their Backs (Linda Grant, Little, Brown)
• A Fraction of the Whole (Steve Toltz, Hamish Hamilton)
• The Northern Clemency (Philip Hensher, Fourth Estate)
• The Sea of Poppies (Amitav Ghosh, John Murray)
• The Secret Scripture (Sebastian Barry, Faber & Faber)
• The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga, Atlantic)

Barry is the only novelist on this year's shortlist to have been previously shortlisted for the prize, while Hensher and Grant have previously been longlisted--the latter having also won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000.

Chair of judges Michael Portillo says the judges selected the titles with ‘great enthusiasm'. He adds ‘These novels are intensely readable, each of them an extraordinary example of imagination and narrative.' He also believes they provide ‘thought-provoking ideas and issues' and are ‘in every case both ambitious and approachable'.

The winning novel will be announced on October 14, the author receiving a prize of £50,000 (AU$109,630).

Source:http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/09/09456/

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