The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2013 was announced this morning, and it is a shortlist almost as diverse as the longlist! The books on the list are:

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo (Chatto & Windus)
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (Granta)
The Harvest by Jim Crace (Picador)
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (Bloomsbury)
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (Canongate)
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín (Penguin)

As the Man Booker website says, it is a shortlist which is ‘fiendishly difficult to categorise’. It crosses centuries, continents and classes, and provides a cross-section of the huge variety that modern fiction has to offer. Of these, I have so far only reviewed one (The Testament of Mary), and am currently reading and thoroughly enjoying The Luminaries. Despite a heavy reading schedule, I hope to read all the shortlist before the winner is announced on October 15th, so watch this space!