The shortlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize has been announced. Among the final six are some you’d expect to see and a few I’ve never heard of. I’ll do some digging in the next few days and try to get some details on the lesser known titles.

• Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
• The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
• Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)

Darkmans and Animal’s People aren’t available in this country yet, but that could well change in the coming weeks.

The winner of the Man Booker Prize will be announced on October 16.–David E