Mighty pens vie for Booker

Winners, former finalists in running $100K prize has oddsmakers ready

LONDON— The Remains of the Day

author Kazuo Ishiguro and two- time former nominee Julian Barnes were named today among six finalists for the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s bestknown literary award. The award, sponsored by the investment company Man Group Plc, carries a 50,000- pound ($ 108,595 Cdn.) prize. It will be awarded at London’s Guildhall on Oct. 10.

Ishiguro was nominated for Never Let Me Go, published by Faber & Faber, about three children who “ confront the truth” about their seemingly happy childhood in the English countryside, the Booker Prize organizers announced on the award’s Web site. He won the Booker Prize previously for his novel The Remains of the Day, which was later made into a movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.

Barnes was nominated for Arthur and George, published by Jonathan Cape, a fictionalized account of events involving Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, in the late 19th century. The other finalists were: Zadie Smith for On Beauty, published by Hamish Hamilton; The Sea by John Banville, Picador; A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry, Faber & Faber; and The Accidental by Ali Smith, Hamish Hamilton. Three previous winners who made the 17-author “long list” announced earlier — Salman Rushdie for Shalimar the Clown

Ian McEwan for Saturday and JM Coetzee for Slow Man — didn’t make today’s final “ shortlist” of nominees.

“ The selection of a shortlist, the judges felt, was an unusually difficult process this year,” John Sutherland, the chair of the judges, said in a statement.

“ 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.”

Last year’s winner was The Line of Beautyby Alan Hollinghurst, published by Picador.

Barnes was made the early favourite at 5- to- 4, oddsmakers William Hill said today on its website, followed by Ishiguro at 3- to- 1, Zadie Smith at 4- to- 1, Barry at 8- to- 1, Banville at 10- to- 1 and Ali Smith at 12- to- 1.

Barnes is a previous Booker finalist for Flaubert’s Parrot in 1984 and for England, England

in 1998.