Man Booker Prize reveals its 2015 shortlist

It's always awaited with great anticipation: The most prestigious literary award for a novel written in English, the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, is now in its 47th year.

The shortlist was announced on Tuesday (15.09.2015), while the winner will be made known on October 13.

For the first time, a Jamaican author is in the running: In "A Brief History of Seven Killings," Marlon James writes about the assassination attempt on reggae legend Bob Marley and its repercussions in Jamaica at the end of the 1970s.

Two Americans, two Britons and the Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma were also shortlisted for the prize, which has only been accessible to writers beyond Britain and the Commonwealth since 2013.

Here's the list of six novels on the shortlist:

- Marlon James, "A Brief History of Seven Killings"

- Tom McCarthy, "Satin Island"

- Chigozie Obioma, "The Fishermen"

- Sunjeev Sahota, "The Year of the Runaways"

- Anne Tyler, "A Spool of Blue Thread"

- Hanya Yanagihara, "A Little Life"

These shortlisted authors will each receive 2,500 pounds, whereas the winner gets a cash prize of 50,000 pounds ($78,000) - and can expect an upsurge in book sales worldwide.

Some of the most well-known winning novels include Yann Martel's "Life of Pi," Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children"and Michael Ondaatje's "The English Patient."

Thomas Keneally's bestselling "Schindler's Ark," which won the Man Booker Prize in 1982, was adapted by Steven Spielberg into the Oscar-winning Holocaust drama "Schindler's List."

eg/kbm (Reuters, AFP)