Gay novel The
Night Watch short-listed for prestigious
Booker Prize

British author Sarah Waters is a 6-4 favorite to land the Booker Prize on Tuesday, but bookmakers believe it is one of the most open fields ever for the top literary award. The judges left a string of literary heavyweights off the short list, including previous winners Peter Carey and Barry Unsworth and early favorite David Mitchell. A spokesman for bookmaker William Hill said: "This is one of the most open fields in years, and we certainly have not written off any of the contenders."

They made Waters favorite to land the $94,000 prize for The Night Watch, her tale of the United Kingdom's postwar years. "It tears the underwear off London," said one of the judges, actress Fiona Shaw.

Second favorite at 4-1 is English writer Edward St. Aubyn for Mother's Milk, about the emotional entanglements of a once-illustrious family. The list was completed by Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, Kate Grenville's The Secret River, M.J. Hyland's Carry Me Down, and Hisham Matar's In The Country of Men.

"The subjects range from histories of colonialism in India, English convicts in Australia, Gaddafi's repressive regime, and London in the blitz to the most intimate stories of family life," said Hermione Lee, chairwoman of the judges.

Highlighting how international the list was for the 2006 prize, she said: "There are four women and two men. They include an Indian writer (Desai) who has lived in America and England, an Australian (Grenville), an Irishwoman (Hyland), and a Libyan-born Egyptian (Matar) now living in England."

She said the sextet on the short list offered "a distinctive, original voice and audacious imagination that takes readers to undiscovered countries of the mind, a strong power of storytelling and a historical truthfulness."

The short list for the prize, founded in 1969, was chosen from an original entry of 112 books. The award guarantees the winner instant literary fame and a place on world best-seller lists.

Last year's winner, The Sea by Irish writer John Banville, has since sold 500,000 copies and boosted sales of his previous novels. (Paul Majendie, Reuters)