All you need to know about the Man Booker Prize

The award carries a cash prize of £50,000.

Last Year’s Winner: Eleanor Catton (New Zealand) for The Luminaries. Catton is the youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize. She was 28 when she won the Prize last year.

This Year’s Shortlist:

— Joshua Ferris (US):  To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
— Richard Flanagan (Australian): The Narrow Road to the Deep North
— Karen Joy Fowler (US): We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
— Howard Jacobson (British): J
— Neel Mukherjee (British): The Lives of Others
— Ali Smith (British): How to be Both

Previous Indian Winners:

— Aravind Adiga for The White Tiger (2008)
— Kiran Desai for The Inheritance of Loss (2006)
— Arundhati Roy for The God of Small Things (1997)

Previous Winners of Indian Origin:

— VS Naipaul for his short story In a Free State (1971)
— Salman Rushdie for Midnight’s Children (1981)

Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children was also awarded the Booker of Bookers in 1993, as the best novel to win the Prize in the first 25 years of the inception of the Man Booker Prize. It also went on to win the Best of the Booker award in 2008 that celebrated the 40th year of the Prize.

In 2012, Indian writer Jeet Thayil made it to the shortlist with his debut novel Narcopolis.  Previously, Anita Desai was nominated thrice for the Man Booker Prize, in 1980, 1984 and 1999 for Clear Light of Day, In Custody and Fasting, Feasting respectively. India born Canadian writer Rohinton Mistry was nominated twice in 1991 and 1996 for Such a Long Journey and A Fine Balance respectively.

Compiled by Paromita Chakrabarti