Dublin writer Anne Enright has made the shortlist for this year's ManBooker literary prize.
Her novel The Gathering, which depicts a woman forced to confront her family's traumatic past after her brother commits suicide, was today listed among the final six books for the prestigious award.
Predictably, former winner Ian McEwan's book On Chesil Beachis the runaway favourite.
McEwan won the prize in 1998 with his novel Amsterdamand was shortlisted in 2001 for Atonement, whihich has now been made into film.
This year's shortlist also includes Darkmansby Nicola Barker, The Reluctant Fundamentalistby Mohsin Hamid, Mister Pipby Lloyd Jones and Animal's Peopleby Indra Sinha.
The winner of the £50,000 (€73,740) prize will be announced on October 16th.
The judges for this year's prize are Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics; poet Wendy Cope; journalist and novelist Giles Foden; biographer and critic Ruth Scurr; and actor and writer Imogen Stubbs.
Davies said: "Selecting a shortlist this year from what was widely seen as an exciting longlist was a tough challenge.
"We hope the choices we have made after passionate and careful consideration, will attract wide interest," he added.
The longlist of 13 books, announced in August, was chosen from 110 entries; 92 were submitted for the prize, and 18 were called in by the judges.