US Pulitzer Prize-winner, Nigerian author makes Booker Prize shortlist

A US Pulitzer Prize-winner and two British authors are among the six writers shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize.

Tom McCarthy and Sunjeev Sahota are on the list alongside Pulitzer winner Anne Tyler and fellow US writer Hanya Yanagihara, plus Jamaican Marlon James and Nigeria's Chigozie Obioma.

Australian author Richard Flanagan won last year's prize for his wartime novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

The winner is announced on 13 October.

The shortlist of authors and titles is as follows:

• Marlon James (Jamaica), A Brief History of Seven Killings
• Tom McCarthy (UK), Satin Island
• Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria), The Fishermen
• Sunjeev Sahota (UK), The Year of the Runaways
• Anne Tyler (US), A Spool of Blue Thread
• Hanya Yanagihara (US), A Little Life

At 28 years old, Obioma is the youngest nominee and has been shortlisted for his debut novel, while Marlon James is the first Jamaican-born author to be nominated for the prize.
McCarthy is the only shortlisted author to have been nominated before, for C in 2010.
This year's prize continues the policy introduced last year of allowing all authors writing in English, regardless of nationality, to be considered for the award.
Before 2014, the prize - first presented in 1969 - was only open to authors from the UK and the Commonwealth, the Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe.
The chairman of the judges, Michael Wood, said: "We are delighted by the diversity of the list but it is an accident. We were not looking for diversity.
"It suggests the novel is alive and well in different places."

Wood is joined on the 2015 panel of judges by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, John Burnside, Sam Leith and Frances Osborne. The judges considered 156 books for this year's prize.

Source: BBC