Irish author Colm Tóibín has made the short list for this year's Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
Tóibín's The Master, about American writer Henry James, was among the six books chosen from a 132 titles for the £50,000 literary prize.
Bookmakers have installed Tóibín as third favourite to win behind British author David Mitchell.
Novelist Colm Toibin
Mitchell's novel
Cloud Atlas
, hailed as "dizzying" and "grand fiction" by critics, offers six loosely linked narratives in different time zones, starting and ending in the 19th Century.
The judges for the prize, which is announced on October 19th, ignored big names like VS Naipaul and Louis de Bernieres and opted instead for a mix of young novelists and well-established authors.
Second favourite for the prize is British author Alan Hollinghurst for The Line of Beauty, a satire on Britain under Margaret Thatcher.
South African writer Achmat Dangor was picked for Bitter Fruit.
The shortlist was completed by British writers Sarah Hall for The Electric Michelangeloand Gerard Woodward for I'll Go to Bed at Noon.
The Booker, launched in 1969, rewards the best novel of the last 12 months by a British, Irish or Commonwealth writer. Won over the years by such famous authors as Salman Rushdie and Nobel literature prizewinner J.M. Coetzee, it is certain to land its author in bestseller lists around the globe.
Critics have in the past lambasted Booker judges for picking obscure winners who may impress academics but fail to appeal to general readers.
But the last two winners - Canadian Yann Martel's Life of Piand DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little- proved to be popular with a wide audience.
Irish author Ronan Bennett's Havoc, in its Third Yearhad been longlisted for the prize but failed to make the final six.