The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014: shortlist announced | The Man Booker Prizes Home / The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014: shortlist announced The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014: shortlist announced The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014: shortlist announced Published on Submitted by Leah on Tue, 2014-09-09 10:05 For immediate release, Tuesday 9 September 2014 Man Booker Prize: shortlist announced The first year that the prize is open to all authors writing in English, regardless of nationality Howard Jacobson in the running to be the first British man to win twice Joshua Ferris, Richard Flanagan, Karen Joy Fowler, Howard Jacobson, Neel Mukherjee and Ali Smith are today, Tuesday 9 September, announced as the shortlisted authors for the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Their names were revealed by chair of judges, AC Grayling , at a press conference at the headquarters of Man Group, a leading investment management firm and the prize’s sponsor since 2002.

The judges praised the ‘depth and range’ of the list, which includes writers from Britain, the United States and Australia. The shortlist of six, taken from a longlist of 13, is: Joshua Ferris (US) To Rise Again at a Decent Hour (Viking) Richard Flanagan (Australian) The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Chatto & Windus) Karen Joy Fowler (US) We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Serpent's Tail) Howard Jacobson (British) J (Jonathan Cape) Neel Mukherjee (British) The Lives of Others (Chatto & Windus) Ali Smith (British) How to be Both (Hamish Hamilton) Chair of the 2014 judges, AC Grayling, comments on behalf of the judges: ‘We are delighted to announce our international shortlist. As the Man Booker Prize expands its borders, these six exceptional books take the reader on journeys around the world, between the UK, New York, Thailand, Italy, Calcutta and times past, present and future. ‘We had a lengthy and intensive debate to whittle the list down to these six.

It is a strong, thought-provoking shortlist which we believe demonstrates the wonderful depth and range of contemporary fiction in English.’ This is the first list to reflect the diversity of the novel in English regardless of the author’s nationality, as the Man Booker Prize has opened up to any author writing originally in English and published in the UK. Previously, the prize was open to authors from the UK & Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe. Two authors have previously appeared on the prize shortlist. Howard Jacobson is a former winner of the prize, with The Finkler Question, in 2010. Ali Smith has been shortlisted twice before, with The Accidental (2005) and Hotel World (2001). AC Grayling is joined on the 2014 panel of judges by: Jonathan Bate ; Sarah Churchwell ; Daniel Glaser ; Alastair Niven and Erica Wagner . The 2014 judges will now re-read the shortlisted titles in order to select the winner, whose name will be revealed on Tuesday 14 October 2014 at a ceremony at London’s Guildhall. The winner announcement will be televised by the BBC, the prize’s media partner.

Man Group has sponsored the prize since 2002. A leading investment management firm, Man Group was recognised as a partner who mirrored the quality, integrity and longevity of the Booker Prize. Manny Roman, CEO of Man Group, comments: ‘We are very proud to sponsor the Man Booker Prize, recognising the hard work and creativity of these talented authors. The prize underscores Man Group's charitable focus on literacy and education as well as our commitment to excellence and entrepreneurship. Together with the wider charitable activities of the Man Booker Foundation, the prize plays a very important role in promoting literary excellence that we are honoured to support. Many congratulations to the shortlisted authors.’ The shortlisted authors will take part in a series of public events in the week leading up to the winner announcement, to include: an event for members of the public and UK library staff at the Library of Birmingham on Wednesday 8 October; a talk and signing at The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival on Saturday 11 October and an audience with the authors at the Southbank Centre on Monday 13 October, hosted by broadcaster Kirsty Wark. Finally, there will be an audience with the winner at Apple’s Regent Street branch on Thursday 16 October.

The Man Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize, was first awarded in 1969 to PH Newby for Something to Answer For. It is widely regarded as a touchstone for high quality literary fiction written in English, including in its canon many of the literary trailblazers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: from Salman Rushdie to Hilary Mantel , Iris Murdoch to Peter Carey . The rules of the prize changed at the end of 2013, to embrace ‘the freedom of English in all its vigour, its vitality, its versatility and its glory wherever it may be’, opening up to writers beyond the UK and Commonwealth. Other changes this year include the number of books a publisher can submit, based on their success in longlists over the previous five years. The shortlisted authors each receive £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book. On winning the Man Booker Prize, an author will receive a further £50,000 and can expect overnight fame and international recognition, not to mention a dramatic increase in book sales. Sales of Hilary Mantel’s winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, have exceeded a million copies in their UK editions published by Fourth Estate.

Granta, publisher of Eleanor Catton’s 2013 winner, The Luminaries, has sold 300,000 copies of the book in the UK and almost 500,000 worldwide. To hear the most up-to-date news on this year’s prize, learn more about its history and share your thoughts online, visit: To Rise Again at a Decent Hour By Joshua Ferris Published by Viking (£16.99) Paul O'Rourke, 40 year-old slightly curmudgeonly dentist, runs a thriving practice in New York. Yet he is discovering he needs more in his life than a steady income and the perfect mochaccino. But what? As Paul tries to work out the meaning of life, a Facebook page and Twitter account appear in his name. What's at first an outrageous violation of privacy soon becomes something more frightening: the possibility that the online "Paul" might be a better version of the man in the flesh. Who is doing this and will it cost Paul his sanity? Joshua Ferris was born in Illinois in November 1974.

He is the author of two previous novels, Then We Came to the End, which was nominated for the National Book Award, won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, and the highly acclaimed The Unnamed. In 2010, Joshua Ferris was selected for The New Yorker's '20 Under 40' list of fiction writers. He lives in New York. For further information, please contact Anna Ridley at Viking Tel: 0207 010 3278, email: anna.ridley@uk.penguingroup.com The Narrow Road to the Deep North By Richard Flanagan Published by Chatto & Windus (£16.99) The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a love story unfolding over half a century between a doctor and his uncle’s wife. Taking its title from one of the most famous books in Japanese literature, written by the great haiku poet Basho, Flanagan’s novel has as its heart one of the most infamous episodes of Japanese history, the construction of the Thailand-Burma Death Railway in World War II.

In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Death Railway, surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle’s young wife two years earlier. Struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, he receives a letter that will change his life forever. Born in Tasmania in July 1961, Richard Flanagan is one of Australia’s leading novelists. His novels, Death of a River Guide, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Gould's Book of Fish (winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize), The Unknown Terrorist and Wanting have received numerous honours and been published in 26 countries. His father, who died the day Flanagan finished The Narrow Road to the Deep North, was a survivor of the Burma Death Railway. He lives in Tasmania. For further information, please contact Lisa Gooding at Chatto & Windus Tel: 0207 840 8677, email: lgooding@randomhouse.co.uk We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Karen Joy Fowler Published by Serpent's Tail (£12.99) As a child, Rosemary used to talk all the time.

So much so that her parents used to tell her to start in the middle if she wanted to tell a story. Now Rosemary has just started college and she barely talks at all. And she definitely doesn’t talk about her family. So we're not going to tell you too much either: you'll have to find out for yourself what it is that makes her unhappy family unlike any other. Rosemary is now an only child, but she used to have a sister the same age as her, and an older brother. Both are now gone - vanished from her life. But there's something unique about Rosemary's sister, Fern. So now she's telling her story; a looping narrative that begins towards the end, and then goes back to the beginning. Twice. Karen Joy Fowler was born in Indiana in February 1950. She is the author of six novels and three short story collections. The Jane Austen Book Club spent 13 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s previous novel, Sister Noon, was a finalist for the 2001 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction.

Sarah Canary won the Commonwealth medal for best first novel by a Californian, and was listed for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize as well as the Bay Area Book Reviewers Prize. Fowler’s short story collection Black Glass won the World Fantasy Award in 1999, and her collection What I Didn’t See won the World Fantasy Award in 2011. She is the co-founder of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award and the current president of the Clarion Foundation (also known as Clarion San Diego). She lives in California. For further information, please contact Hannah Ross at Serpent’s Tail Tel: 0207 841 6307, email: hannah.ross@profilebooks.com Published by Jonathan Cape (£18.99) Set in the future, a world where the past is a dangerous country, not to be talked about or visited, J is a love story of incomparable strangeness, both tender and terrifying. Two people fall in love, not yet knowing where they have come from or where they are going. Kevern doesn’t know why his father always drew two fingers across his lips when he said a world starting with a J.

It wasn’t then, and isn’t now, the time or place to be asking questions. Ailinn too has grown up in the dark about who she was or where she came from. On their first date Kevern kisses the bruises under her eyes. He doesn’t ask who hurt her. Brutality has grown commonplace. They aren’t sure if they have fallen in love of their own accord, or whether they’ve been pushed into each other’s arms. But who would have pushed them, and why? Hanging over the lives of all the characters in this novel is a momentous catastrophe – a past event shrouded in suspicion, denial and apology, now referred to as What Happened, If It Happened. An award-winning writer and broadcaster, Howard Jacobson was born in Manchester in August 1942, brought up in Prestwich and was educated at Stand Grammar School in Whitefield, and Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied under FR Leavis. He lectured for three years at the University of Sydney before returning to teach at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

His books include: The Mighty Waltzer (1999), winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize; Kalooki Nights (2006), longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and The Finkler Question (2010), winner of the Man Booker Prize. He lives in London. For further information, please contact Alice Broderick at Jonathan Cape Tel: 020 7840 8425, email: ABroderick@randomhouse.co.uk The Lives of Others Published by Chatto & Windus (£16.99) Calcutta, 1967. Unnoticed by his family, Supratik has become dangerously involved in extremist political activism. Compelled by an idealistic desire to change his life and the world around him, all he leaves behind before disappearing is this note… The ageing patriarch and matriarch of his family, the Ghoshes, preside over their large household, unaware that beneath the barely ruffled surface of their lives the sands are shifting.

More than poisonous rivalries among sisters-in-law, destructive secrets, and the implosion of the family business, this is a family unravelling as the society around it fractures. For this is a moment of turbulence, of inevitable and unstoppable change: the chasm between the generations, and between those who have and those who have not, has never been wider. Neel Mukherjee was born in Calcutta in March 1970. His first novel, A Life Apart (2010), won the Vodafone-Crossword Award in India, the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award for best fiction, and was shortlisted for the inaugural DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. The Lives of Others is his second novel. He lives in London. For further information, please contact Ruth Warburton / Kate Bland at Chatto & Windus Tel: 0207 840 8688, email: warburtonbland@randomhouse.co.uk Published by Hamish Hamilton (£16.99) How to be Both is a novel all about art's versatility.

Borrowing from painting's fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it's a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions. There's a renaissance artist of the 1460s. There's the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real - and all life's givens get given a second chance. Ali Smith was born in Inverness in August 1962. She won the Saltire First Book Award and a Scottish Arts Council Award in 1995 for her first collection of stories, Free Love. Her first novel, Like, was published in 1997 and her second collection of stories, Other Stories and Other Stories, in 1999. Hotel World, her second novel, was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize and the Orange Prize. The Accidental, was shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize in 2005. She lives in Cambridge.

For further information, please contact Tel: 0207 010 3278, email: anna.ridley@uk.penguingroup.com The six shortlisted books were chosen from a longlist of 13 books.

They were: Joshua Ferris To Rise Again at a Decent Hour (Viking) Richard Flanagan The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Chatto & Windus) Karen Joy Fowler We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Serpent's Tail) Siri Hustvedt The Blazing World (Sceptre) Howard Jacobson J (Jonathan Cape) Paul Kingsnorth The Wake (Unbound) David Mitchell The Bone Clocks (Sceptre) Neel Mukherjee The Lives of Others (Chatto & Windus) David Nicholls Us (Hodder & Stoughton) Joseph O'Neill The Dog (Fourth Estate) Richard Powers Orfeo (Atlantic Books) Ali Smith How to be Both (Hamish Hamilton) Niall Williams History of the Rain (Bloomsbury) The longlisted books were selected from a total of 154 titles, nine of which were called in by the judges UK publishers may submit novels written in the English language and published in the UK between 1 October 2013 and 30 September 2014.

The number of books a publisher can submit will depend on that publisher’s inclusion in longlists over the previous five years, as follows: 2014 Man Booker prize: Richard Flanagan 'stunned' to make longlist | Culture | The Guardian Australia culture blog 2014 Man Booker prize: Richard Flanagan 'stunned' to make longlist The lone Australian entrant on the list points to wider trend of 'a huge popular re-engagement with Australian writers' Wednesday 23 July 2014 22.16 EDT Last modified on Wednesday 26 October 2016 19.55 EDT Close This article is 2 years old The Australian author Richard Flanagan has been included on the 13-strong longlist for the 2014 Man Booker prize for his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The Tasmanian writer said he was “stunned” to be in the running for the prestigious UK-based literary prize, which for the first time has been opened to authors of any nationality.

Four US authors made the list after the $90,000 prize was extended beyond citizens of Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth to include writers from any country who write in English. Six Britons and two Irish writers make up the rest of the list, picked by six judges. The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a novel based on the experience of an Australian man in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on the Thai-Burma death railway in 1943. The book has garnered huge acclaim, with the Guardian’s Michael Williams calling it a “high point in an already distinguished career” for Flanagan, whose previous books include Death of a River Guide, Gould’s Book of Fish and The Sound of One Hand Clapping. Flanagan said: “It’s a strong year with great books and great authors. “To be a writer is largely a journey into humility, to be defeated by ever greater things, so this isn’t something you come to expect. “A lot of writers have a brief time in the sun, only to do their best work in the shade. I was told that the bookies had stopped taking money on Gould’s Book of Fish to win the prize, but then it didn’t get a mention.

You learn not to judge your work just by these things.” Flanagan said that while it did not matter if writers are “Australian or Angolan”, he had noted a recent swell of popular support for Australian authors. “There’s a huge popular re-engagement with Australian writers. They are selling books like never before and when you go to the book festivals the Australian writers are getting bigger crowds than the big international writers,” he said. “I think that’s because people are being starved of public discussion on things that are important to them. They are returning to books and literature to find those things. “People feel they are being talked down to in the media and in politics. In every soul there’s a universe that wants to be recognised as that. People are many things, not just a marketing segment or a political definition. “When people feel like they are treated like fools, books offer not just solace, but liberation. They allow them to feel human.” The Man Booker prize shortlist, of six titles, will be announced on 9 September. The winning novel will be unveiled in London on 14 October.

Haruki Murakami, David Mitchell, Sarah Waters and Martin Amis among authors with new novels timed for greatest exposure Published: 8 Aug 2014 This year’s Man Booker longlist sees Americans appearing for the first time amid a field of established names, including David Mitchell, Ali Smith and 2010 winner Howard Jacobson Published: 24 Jul 2014 Art, war and internet dominate as Neel Mukherjee tipped as favourite to win first Man Booker prize to allow all nationalities Published: 9 Sep 2014 As US writers are admitted to the UK's premier books prize, we take a closer look at this year's competition, and share summer reading tips Published: 25 Jul 2014 The winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is... | The Man Booker Prizes Home / The winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is... The winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is... The winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is...

Submitted by Leah on Tue, 2014-10-14 21:06 2014 Richard Flanagan is tonight, Tuesday 14 October, announced as the winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Narrow Road to the Deep North , published by Chatto & Windus. The Tasmanian-born author is the third Australian to win the coveted prize which, for the first time in its 46-year history, is now expanded to include entries from writers of all nationalities, writing originally in English and published in the UK. He joins an impressive literary canon of former winners including fellow Australians Thomas Kenneally (Schindler’s Ark, 1982) and Peter Carey (Oscar & Lucinda, 1988 and The True History of the Kelly Gang, 2001). The Narrow Road to the Deep North is the sixth novel from Richard Flanagan, who is considered by many to be one of Australia’s finest novelists. It centres upon the experiences of surgeon Dorrigo Evans in a Japanese POW camp on the now infamous Thailand-Burma railway.

The Financial Times calls it ‘elegantly wrought, measured and without an ounce of melodrama… nothing short of a masterpiece.’ Named after a famous Japanese book by the haiku poet Basho, The Narrow Road to the Deep North is described by the 2014 judges as ‘a harrowing account of the cost of war to all who are caught up in it’. Questioning the meaning of heroism, the book explores what motivates acts of extreme cruelty and shows that perpetrators may be as much victims as those they abuse. Flanagan’s father, who died the day he finished The Narrow Road to the Deep North, was a survivor of the Burma Death Railway. Richard Flanagan was announced as the 2014 winner by AC Grayling, Chair of judges, at an awards dinner at London’s Guildhall, which was broadcast live on the BBC News Channel. Flanagan was presented with a trophy from HRH The Duchess of Cornwall and a £50,000 cheque from Emmanuel Roman, Chief Executive of Man Group. The investment management firm has sponsored the prize since 2002.

AC Grayling comments: ‘The two great themes from the origin of literature are love and war: this is a magnificent novel of love and war. Written in prose of extraordinary elegance and force, it bridges East and West, past and present, with a story of guilt and heroism. ‘This is the book that Richard Flanagan was born to write.’ In addition to his £50,000 prize and trophy, Flanagan also receives a designer bound edition of his book, and a further £2,500 for being shortlisted. On winning the Man Booker Prize, an author can expect international recognition, not to mention a dramatic increase in book sales. Sales of Hilary Mantel’s winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, have exceeded a million copies in their UK editions, published by Fourth Estate. Her novels have subsequently been adapted for stage and screen, with the highly acclaimed theatre productions of both novels arriving on Broadway in April 2015. Granta, publisher of Eleanor Catton’s 2013 winner, The Luminaries, has sold 300,000 copies of the book in the UK and almost 500,000 worldwide.

AC Grayling , philosopher and author, was joined on the 2014 panel of judges by: Jonathan Bate , Oxford Professor of English Literature and biographer; Sarah Churchwell , UEA’s Professor of American Literature; Daniel Glaser , neuroscientist and cultural commentator; Alastair Niven , former Director of Literature at the British Council and at the Arts Council, and Erica Wagner , former literary editor and writer. The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014 | Bookreporter.com The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014 The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014 Awards The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014 The Man Booker Prize promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year. The prize is the world's most important literary award and has the power to transform the fortunes of authors and publishers. For more about The Man Booker Prize, go to 2014 Winner Richard Flanagan is the winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH, published by Chatto & Windus.

The Tasmanian-born author is the third Australian to win the coveted prize, which, for the first time in its 46-year history, is now expanded to include entries from writers of all nationalities, writing originally in English and published in the UK. He joins an impressive literary canon of former winners, including fellow Australians Thomas Kenneally (SCHINDLER'S ARK, 1982) and Peter Carey (OSCAR & LUCINDA, 1988 and THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG, 2001).

TO RISE AGAIN AT A DECENT HOUR by Joshua Ferris (Viking) THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH by Richard Flanagan (Chatto & Windus) WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES by Karen Joy Fowler (Serpent's Tail) J by Howard Jacobson (Jonathan Cape) THE LIVES OF OTHERS by Neel Mukherjee (Chatto & Windus) HOW TO BE BOTH by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton) TO RISE AGAIN AT A DECENT HOUR by Joshua Ferris (Viking) THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH by Richard Flanagan (Chatto & Windus) WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES by Karen Joy Fowler (Serpent's Tail) THE BLAZING WORLD by Siri Hustvedt (Sceptre) J by Howard Jacobson (Jonathan Cape) THE WAKE by Paul Kingsnorth (Unbound) THE BONE CLOCKS by David Mitchell (Sceptre) THE LIVES OF OTHERS by Neel Mukherjee (Chatto & Windus) US by David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton) THE DOG by Joseph O'Neill (Fourth Estate) ORFEO by

 Richard Powers (Atlantic Books) HOW TO BE BOTH by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton) HISTORY OF THE RAIN by Niall Williams (Bloomsbury) Vote in Our Poll Take our poll » | Past poll results » Word of Mouth Tell us about the books you’ve finished reading with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars.

During the contest period from January 6th to January 20th at noon ET, three lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of HER EVERY FEAR by Peter Swanson and THE NOWHERE MAN: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz. Enter contest here » | Past Entries » Sounding Off on Audio Tell us about the audiobooks you’ve finished listening to with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for both the performance and the content. During the contest period from January 3rd to February 1st at noon ET, two lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win the audio versions of JP Delaney's THE GIRL BEFORE , read by Emilia Fox and Finty Williams, with Lisa Aagaard Knudsen, and Chris Bohjalian's THE SLEEPWALKER , read by Cady McClain and Grace Experience. Enter contest here » | Past Entries » A Note from Carol I love to cook, and while I am not much into holiday baking, I do make Graham Cracker Brownies for the folks in the parking garage and Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies for my family.

My bookish holiday indulgence is holiday-themed books, the kind that give me a lump in my throat or that make me smile. Richard Flanagan wins Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014 Richard Flanagan wins Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014 Nick Miller, Stephanie Peatling reddit More Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan has won one of the world's most prestigious literary prizes, the 2014 Man Booker, for his masterpiece of love and death, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Chairman of the judging panel AC Grayling praised the book, about Australian soldiers on the Burma Railway – and what came after – as "profound and often harrowing". "I feel as if I have been to the moon and back on a comet's tail," Professor Grayling said. On accepting the award Flanagan joked that the Booker was sometimes seen in Australia as a chook raffle, "but I just didn't expect to be the chicken". SHARE "Astonished": Man Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan. Photo: AFP "I'm astonished," he said of the win.

"You do not expect these strokes of good fortune to come your way, you're just grateful to be back at the table the next day writing." He came from a tiny mining town in a rainforest and his grandparents were illiterate, Flanagan told the prestigious gathering of literary greats in London's Guildhall. Advertisement "Novels are life, or they are nothing," he said, thanking his wife (who was there to see him accept the prize) for accompanying him on the writer's "journey into humility". "(To be a writer) it's to be defeated by ever greater things," he said, saying his wife had "travelled with me over many dark times with love, with grace, with dignity". SHARE Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, speaks at the awards dinner at the Guildhall, London. Photo: Reuters In a possible breach of royal protocol, Flanagan hugged the prize's presenter – the Duchess of Cornwall – when he came up on stage to accept the award. "She is such a sweet woman and she is very nice and I didn't think to respond in any other way," he later explained. SHARE Link The winning novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

After the awards ceremony, Flanagan criticised the federal government's environmental policies saying they have made him "ashamed to be an Australian". "I'm very saddened because Australia has the most extraordinary environment and I don't understand why our government seems committed to destroying what we have that's unique in the world," Flanagan, a long-time campaigner for the preservation of Tasmania's old growth forests, told the BBC. When asked about Prime Minister Tony Abbott's comment earlier this week that "coal is good for humanity", Flanagan said: "To be frank, I'm ashamed to be Australian when you bring this up." A spokesman for the Prime Minister would not be drawn on Flanagan's comments. Mr Abbott has written a letter of congratulations to Flanagan. Flanagan said the £50,000 ($91,000) award "in essence means I can continue to write". Two years ago he had been considering going to work on the mines because he had spent so long writing it. His father, a survivor of the Burma Death Railway, died the day he finished the book. Flanagan hopes to get the next one out much more quickly – possibly even next year, though winning the Booker may change his schedule.

"Much has been made about the death of the novel and the end of literature," he said. "I don't share that pessimism because I think it is one of the great inventions of the human spirit." He said he looked forward to going back to Tasmania, "pulling down the shutters and continuing writing". Professor Grayling said that in some years "very good books" won the Man Booker Prize but this year "a masterpiece" had won. "It felt like being kicked in the stomach by several donkeys, all at once," said Professor Grayling about reading the book. "It really is an extremely powerful book." This was the first year that the previously Commonwealth-only prize has been open to all English language writers.

Advertisement Man Booker prize shortlist 2014 includes US authors for the first time | Books | The Guardian Man Booker prize shortlist 2014 includes US authors for the first time Two American authors line up with British novelists including Ali Smith and Howard Jacobson Tuesday 9 September 2014 06.08 EDT First published on Tuesday 9 September 2014 06.08 EDT Close This article is 2 years old British writers have clinched three spots on the Man Booker prize shortlist after the UK's most prestigious literary award opened its doors to writers of any nationality for the first time in its 46-year history. The move, intended to embrace "the freedom of English in all its vigour, its vitality, its versatility and its glory wherever it may be", had prompted fears that the heavyweights of American literature would dominate the British award. But in the event, two US writers have made the final round of this year's award: Joshua Ferris and Karen Joy Fowler .

Ferris and Fowler make the final six alongside the Australian writer Richard Flanagan , with three British writers shortlisted for the £50,000 award this year: former winner Howard Jacobson , Neel Mukherjee , and Ali Smith . Fellow UK author David Mitchell's much-anticipated new novel The Bone Clocks, described in the Guardian review by Ursula K Le Guin as "600 pages of metafictional shenanigans in relentlessly brilliant prose", missed out on a shortlist place, as did US literary stars Siri Hustvedt and Richard Powers. Instead, picking from a longlist of 13, judges headed by philosopher AC Grayling plumped for Ferris's third novel To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, a book dubbed "The Catch-22 of dentistry" by Stephen King in which a dentist finds he is being impersonated online, and Fowler's eye-poppingly original We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, a story of one of the more unusual familes in modern fiction which has already won her the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction .

Flanagan was picked for his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, focusing on Australian PoWs used as forced labour on the Burma Death Railway, Jacobson for the dystopian J, set in a world where it is dangerous to talk of the past, and of "What Happened, If It Happened", and Calcutta-born Mukherjee for his story of a Bengali family as it falls apart, The Lives of Others. Smith, who has made the final Booker six twice before, completes the shortlist this time with the acclaimed How to Be Both, a combination of the stories of a teenager whose mother has just died and an Italian Renaissance painter. This is the first year the Man Booker has been open to writers of any nationality, writing originally in English and published in the UK. Previously, it could only be won by authors from the UK and Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe. The judging panel praised the "depth and range" of the list. "As the Man Booker prize expands its borders, these six exceptional books take the reader on journeys around the world, between the UK, New York, Thailand, Italy, Calcutta and times past, present and future," said Grayling, announcing the shortlist this morning.

"We had a lengthy and intensive debate to whittle the list down to these six. It is a strong, thought-provoking shortlist which we believe demonstrates the wonderful depth and range of contemporary fiction in English." At Waterstones, Dan Lewis wrote that "after all the controversy over rule changes the American contingent, in the form of Karen Joy Fowler and Joshua Ferris, is rather unassuming – in number at least. Ferris, who at 39 is the youngest author on this year's list, perhaps hopes To Rise Again at a Decent Hour can emulate fellow listee Jacobson's 2010 win: the last time a comic novel triumphed.

Meanwhile Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves which has proved a hit with our booksellers and customers, will no doubt be hailed as a breath of fresh air – a highly readable answer to any accusations of stuffiness or impenetrability which are so often levelled against literary prizes." The shortlist: To Rise Again At a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler J by Howard Jacobson The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee How to Be Both by Ali Smith What we said: To Rise Again At a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris "To Rise Again at a Decent Hour at times struggles to bear the weight of its conceit (digressions into the history of the Amalekites confound after a while), but at its best it is enormously impressive: profoundly and humanely engaged with the mysteries of belief and disbelief, linguistically agile and wrongfooting, and dismayingly funny in the way that only really serious books can be." Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan "One would notice, if not swept along

 by the tale, that the allocation of time to characters, the certainty of the narration, the confidence to pause and then lunge on, to play with time, are all bravura accomplishments.

We don't notice, though. Flanagan is too good to let us." Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler "Many a novel has devoted itself to exploring variations of Larkin's lament about what mums and dads do to their kids. But if any other book has done it as exhilaratingly as the achingly funny, deeply serious heart-breaker that is Fowler's 10th novel, and made it ring true for the whole of mankind, I've yet to read it." Howard Jacobson, J J by Howard Jacobson "To say J is unlike any other novel Jacobson has written would be misleading: the same ferocious wit runs throughout, while the minutiae of male-female relations are as sharply portrayed as ever. Nevertheless, the comparisons that will inevitably be made with earlier dystopian visions – George Orwell, of course, and the Aldous Huxley of Brave New World, but also Yevgeny Zamyatin's We – will not be difficult to justify." Neel Mukherjee, The Lives of Others "The cast is huge and the reader spends time, at one point or another, with most of them.

It takes a while to get to know all the men, women and children, but the story is always gripping, and there are various time-bombs that suddenly change the way we see the book's whole world." Man Booker Prize 2014: At a glance - BBC News BBC News Man Booker Prize 2014: At a glance 9 September 2014 Close share panel Image copyright Man Booker Image caption Man Booker authors: (clockwise from top left) Joshua Ferris, Richard Flanagan, Neel Mukherjee, Ali Smith, Howard Jacobson, Karen Joy Fowler This year's Man Booker Prize includes writers from Britain, the United States and Australia. It is the first year that the prize is open to all authors writing in English, regardless of nationality. "It is a strong, thought-provoking shortlist which we believe demonstrates the wonderful depth and range of contemporary fiction in English," said AC Grayling, chair of judges. Here is a brief guide to the six books, and their authors.

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour By Joshua Ferris Image copyright Viking Published by Viking About the book: Paul O'Rourke, a successful New York dentist, wants more out of life, and is puzzled when someone sets up an online Facebook and Twitter account in his name. About the author: Joshua Ferris was born in Illinois in November 1974. His previous novels are Then We Came to the End and The Unnamed. In 2010, he was selected for The New Yorker's 20 Under 40 list of fiction writers. The judges said: "It was a book that made the judges laugh out loud. It has a mordant overbite of wit and a black tongue of satire directed at our social media-mediated modernity." The reviews said: "To Rise Again at a Decent Hour at times struggles to bear the weight of its conceit...

but at its best it is enormously impressive: profoundly and humanely engaged with the mysteries of belief and disbelief, linguistically agile and wrong footing, and dismayingly funny in the way that only really serious books can be." Alex Clark, The Guardian The Narrow Road to the Deep North By Richard Flanagan Image copyright Chatto and Windus Published by Chatto & Windus About the book: Taking its title from a book by the haiku poet Basho, Flanagan's novel is a love story set against the construction of the Thailand-Burma Death Railway in World War Two. In a Japanese POW camp, surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle's young wife two years earlier. About the author: Richard Flanagan was born in Tasmania in 1961. His previous novels include Death of a River Guide, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Gould's Book of Fish, The Unknown Terrorist and Wanting. His father, a survivor of the Burma Death Railway, died the day Flanagan finished The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The judges said: "An extraordinary examination of the motivation of people who are caught up in a war and the acts of extreme cruelty they can be driven to...

it's a highly readable page-turning novel, but complex in its narration. It's sophisticated in structure and we think it is a fairly profound book about the nature of being Australian." The reviews said: "Flanagan's writing courses like a river, sometimes black with mud, sludge and corpses, sometimes bright with moonlight. Danger is omnipresent, even after combat recedes; nature careless and monumental in its rains, its bushfires. The hallucinations caused by privation, be it physical hunger or erotic yearning, are unapologetically evoked. The stories of these casualties of fate catch at the soul." Catherine Taylor, The Telegraph We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves By Karen Joy Fowler Image copyright Serpent's Tail Published by Serpent's Tail About the book: Narrated by Rosemary while at college, the book tells the story of her family and in particular her unique "sister", Fern, who is no longer in her life. About the author: Karen Joy Fowler is the author of six novels including The Jane Austen Book Club. Born in Indiana in 1950, her other novels include Sister Noon and Sarah Canary.

Her short story collection Black Glass won the World Fantasy Award in 1999, while her collection What I Didn't See won the same award in 2011. The judges said: "A book that bears re-reading despite its twist. It seems to be quite a simple book, narrated clearly and plainly, but it's a deeply sophisticated book not only about families but also about stories and the nature of storytelling." The reviews said: "What does it mean to be human, she asks, and what does it mean to be humane? Although there's little doubt where her sympathies lie, Fowler manages to subsume any polemical motive within an unsettling, emotionally complex story that plumbs the mystery of our strange relationship with the animal kingdom — relatives included." Ron Charles, Washington Post J Image copyright Jonathan Cape Published by Jonathan Cape About the book: A satire set in a Britain of the future after a catastrophe referred to as What Happened, If It Happened. About the author: Howard Jacobson is in the running to be the first British man to win twice.

Born in Manchester in 1942, his books include: The Mighty Waltzer, Kalooki Nights, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and The Finkler Question, which won him the Booker in 2010. The judges said: "It's a novel about things that may or may not have happened, with historical echoes of tragedies going back through time... it says things which are not really said in polite discourse in this country." The reviews said: "A provocative dystopian fantasy to stack next to Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, J has the kind of nightmarish twist which makes you want to turn back to page one immediately and read the whole thing again. "On a first reading, much of the novel is perplexing, slow, and perversely humourless, given that its author is a revered humorist.

However once you know the story's secret, it takes on an electrifying power and when you get close to the end, it's all worth it." Nicholas Barber, The Express The Lives of Others Image copyright Chatto and Windus Published by Chatto & Windus About the book: A sweeping account of life in 1960s Calcutta which focuses on the secrets and rivalries within the Ghosh family. About the author: Neel Mukherjee was born in Calcutta in 1970. His first novel, A Life Apart (2010), won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for best fiction, and was shortlisted for the inaugural DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. The judges said: "A rich, multi-layered, fascinating novel which explores the relationships within the family against the background of a tumultuous political scene in that part of India." The reviews said: "One of Mukherjee's great gifts is precisely his capacity to imagine the lives of others. He can move from inside one head to inside another in a conversation or conflict and take the reader with him.

He isn't really an omniscient narrator, there is no authorial voice - just an imagination that is more than adequate to its task." AS Byatt, The Guardian How to be Both Published by Hamish Hamilton Image copyright Hamish Hamilton About the book: The two-part novel focuses on two lives: a teenage girl in the present day wrestling with grief and a renaissance artist in the 1460s. The book comes in two versions, with the same cover but with the main parts switched. It doesn't matter which part is read first. About the author: Ali Smith has been shortlisted twice before, with The Accidental (2005) and Hotel World (2001). Born in Inverness in 1962, her first novel, Like, was published in 1997. The judges said: "It is about starting over, the consolations of art, the exhilaration of imagination, the joy of breaking down barriers between different people and different historical eras - and even different books." The reviews said: "There is no doubt that Smith is dazzling in her daring.

The sheer inventive power of her new novel pulls you through, gasping, to the final page." Elizabeth Day, The Observer

Question: What nationality is Richard Flanagan, winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction?
Answer: Australian