Man Booker shortlist announced

"Zadie Smith's On Beauty, a tribute to Howards End set on a college campus, and Julian Barnes' Arthur & George, a historical novel about Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle, were among the finalists announced Thursday for Britain's Man Booker Prize. Others on the shortlist for the $91,800 award were John Banville's The Sea, Sebastian Barry's A Long Long Way, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Ali Smith's The Accidental. Former Booker winners J.M. Coetzee, Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan were among those who didn't make the final list. The winner of the prize, open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth of former British colonies, will be announced at a ceremony in London on Oct. 10. Chair of the judges John Sutherland said the quality of the 17 books in this year's long list had been particularly strong and judges faced a difficult decision in culling 11 entries for the shortlist. The strength of the year's competition can be measured by the fact that three good books by previous Man Booker winners were finally not selected, he said Thursday.