Man Booker shortlist includes Marlon James, Tom McCarthy, Anne Tyler

The Man Booker Prize is feeling very international.

In the first year that the prize has included books from any nation published in the UK in English, its shortlist has stretched well beyond Britain’s borders.

The six-book shortlist includes one author from Nigeria, one from Jamaica, two from America and two from the U.K. Two currently live in the U.K., while the remaining four live in the U.S.

The shortlisted books are:

“A Brief History of Seven Killings” by Marlon James (from Jamaica)

“Satin Island” by Tom McCarthy (from the U.K.)

“The Fishermen” by Chigozie Obioma (from Nigeria)

“The Year of the Runaways” by Sunjeev Sahota (from the U.K.)

“A Spool of Blue Thread” by Anne Tyler (from the U.S.)

“A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara (from the U.S.)

“The writers on the shortlist present an extraordinary range of approaches to fiction. They come from very different cultures and are themselves at very different stages of their careers,” the judges’ chairman, Michael Wood, said in a release.

British bookseller Foyle’s declared Yanagihara’s novel “A Little Life” the favorite. Betting house Ladbrokes has not yet posted wagers on the contest.

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