Man Booker prize shortlist pits veteran Coetzee against bookies' favourite Mantel
Heavy-hitting trio of Hilary Mantel, AS Byatt and Sarah Waters are joined on Man Booker shortlist by JM Coetzee, who could become first author ever to win a Booker hat-trick
Alison Flood ,guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 September 2009

Booker rivals ... JM Coetzee and Hilary Mantel. Photographs: AFP/Rex

JM Coetzee could become the first author ever to win a hat-trick of Man Booker prizes, after his latest novel Summertime was this morning shortlisted for the literary award.

In a lineup with a strong focus on historical fiction, favourite Hilary Mantel also made the final six, alongside Sarah Waters, but perennial Booker bridesmaids Colm Tóibín (who has been shortlisted twice before) and acclaimed Irish novelist William Trevor (shortlisted four times) failed to make the cut.

Surprise longlist selection Me Cheeta, James Lever's "memoir" of the chimp who starred in the Tarzan films, was also overlooked.
Instead, the panel of judges, chaired by James Naughtie, plumped for another former winner of the prize, AS Byatt. Byatt won the Booker in 1990 for Possession, and is in the running this time for The Children's Book, set at the turn of the 20th century and centring on a "successful authoress of magical tales" for children.

Claire Armitstead, literary editor of the Guardian, introduces a discussion about this year's Man Booker shortlist. Link to this audio

Coetzee, the first author to win the Booker prize twice – for Life and Times of Michael K and Disgrace - is shortlisted for the third volume in his trilogy of fictionalised memoir that began with Boyhood and Youth. Summertime tells the story of an English biographer, writing a book about the late author John Coetzee.

But Coetzee will be facing tough competition if he wants to win the prize a record third time: Mantel's Wolf Hall, a piece of historical fiction set in the court of Henry VIII and centring on the character of Thomas Cromwell, has been so heavily backed by literary punters that its selection will cost the bookies dear. William Hill said yesterday that it hoped the judges would leave the book off the shortlist. "95% of the bets we have taken so far have been for Wolf Hall, so we would be delighted to see it fail to get on the shortlist, but I fear it will be there, having already been backed from 8/1 to 6/4 - and I have no doubt that it will become the hottest favourite ever to win the award, and the first book to be odds-on to do so," said spokesman Graham Sharpe. "It could become our first ever six-figure payout if it wins."

Waters, meanwhile, twice shortlisted for the Booker and the Orange prize, could find that this is her lucky year: her ghost story The Little Stranger, set in post-war Warwickshire, is far and away the bestselling novel on the longlist.

Read the full piece at The Guardian online.