London - Irish novelist Anne Enright has been short-listed for this year's Whitbread Book Award.
Her novel, What Are You Like?, will compete against books by two authors who missed out on this year's Booker prize: Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans and Matthew Kneale's English Passengers. Margaret Atwood scooped the Booker with her novel The Blind Assassin.
Other writers to be nominated include Will Self for How The Dead Live, and Jill Dawson for her novel Fred and Edie. Among those up for the First Novel Award is Zadie Smith for her look at the lives of three London families, White Teeth.
The judges described all the novels on this year's short-list as being of outstanding quality. The winner in each category will be announced on January 4th and will receive £3,500. Judges will then decide on the overall Book of the Year, with the winner receiving a further £22,500.