Two Irish authors have made it onto this year’s longlist for the prestigious Man Booker prize.
The 13-strong list includes Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scriptureand Joseph O'Neill's Netherland.
Barry was shortlisted for the 2005 prize for his book A Long Long Way.
British author Salman Rushdie, who won the prize in 1981 for Midnight's Children, is also nominated for his latest book The Enchantress of Florence.
The other authors on the list are: Aravind Adiga for The White Tiger, Gaynor Arnold for Girl in a Blue Dress, John Berger for From A to X, Michelle de Kretser for The Lost Dog, Amitav Ghosh for Sea of Poppies, Linda Grant for The Clothes on Their Backs, Mohammed Hanif for A Case of Exploding Mangoes, Philip Hensher for The Northern Clemency, Tom Rob Smith for Child 44, Steve Toltz for A Fraction of the Whole.
A shortlist of six books for the £50,000 prize will announced in September.
The 13 books, announced today, were chosen from 112 entries, 103 were submitted for the prize and nine were called in by the judges.
Chair of this year’s judging panel former British MP Michael Portillo said: “With a notable degree of consensus, the five Man Booker judges decided on their longlist of 13 books.”
Mr Portillio said: "The judges are pleased with the geographical balance of the longlist with writers from Pakistan, India, Australia, Ireland and UK.
"We also are happy with the interesting mix of books, five first novels and two novels by former winners.
The list covers an extraordinary variety of writing. Still two qualities emerge this year: large scale narrative and the striking use of humour.”
The judging panel for this year’s prize is: Michael Portillo, former MP and Cabinet Minister; Alex Clark, editor of Granta; Louise Doughty, novelist; James Heneage, founder of Ottakar’s bookshops and Hardeep Singh Kohli, TV and radio broadcaster.
