THE BOOKER PRIZE

winner of the Man Booker prize is announced next Tuesday, so here HEPHZiBAH ANDERSON takes a look at the finalists ...

WE NEED NEW NAMES by NoViolet Bulawayo (Chatto £14.99 £11.49)

Odds: 13/2 PLOT: For ten-year-old Darling and her pals, home is a shantytown where they spend their days scrumping guavas and dreaming of escaping Africa. But when Darling is sent to live in America those dreams are dashed by the tough realities of immigrant life. AUTHOR: Zimbabwean born and bred, it was only when Bulawayo headed to the U.S. to study law that she discovered herself as a writer. The only debut novelist on the list. OUR VERDICT: ‘The challenging rhythm and infectious language of Bulawayo’s emotionally articulate novel turns a familiar tale of immigrant displacement into a heroic ballad.’ imogen Lycett Green

THE LUMINARIES by Eleanor Catton (Granta £18.99 £13.99)

Odds: 7/2 PLOT: Structured around astronomical charts, it opens in New Zealand in 1866, where Walter Moody has arrived in search of gold. Instead, he stumbles upon 12 men meeting secretly to discuss a series of unsolved crimes, and i s soon drawn into a mystery spanning 800 pages. AUTHOR: At 27, Catton is the youngest author ever to have made the shortlist. Born in Canada, raised in New Zealand, and educated in America, her debut novel told the story of a teacher-pupil affair and sprang from her Master’s thesis. OUR VERDICT: ‘ Breathtakingly ambitious … hugely elaborate … Catton’s playful and increasingly virtuosic denouement arrives at a conclusion that is as beautiful as it is triumphant.’ Stephanie Cross

HARVEST by Jim Crace (Picador £16.99

£12.99) Odds: 6/4

PLOT: When three outsiders arrive on the edges of a hamlet, they bring with them the scent of change and trouble. Set over the course of a single week in a time and a place that are impossible to pinpoint, this story of loss weaves together witchcraft accusations, dark secrets and rural feuds. AUTHOR: This year’s favourite and the sole Brit of the bunch, Hertfordshire-born Crace is also the oldest and has the most comprehensive backlist. But this novel will be his last, he says. OUR VERDICT: ‘ Elegiac and electric … Crace suffuses his descriptions of daily lives with the scents and sounds of the English countryside ... Warm and earthy, and untainted by sentimentality.’ Hephzibah Anderson