Booker prize shortlist announced

LONDON, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Authors Julian Barnes, Zadie Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro and Ali Smith are on the shortlist to win Britain's Booker Prize, it was announced Thursday.

Also on the list are Sebastian Barry and John Banville, but past winners Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and J.M. Coetzee failed to make the cut, the BBC reported.

Whittling down the list of finalists was "an unusually difficult process this year," John Sutherland, who chairs the judging panel, told the BBC.

"This shortlist, we believe, witnesses to the remarkable quality of the current state of fiction," he said.

Bookmakers have chosen Barnes the favorite to win for his novel "Arthur and George," the BBC said.

The winner to be announced during a ceremony in London Oct. 10, and will receive about $92,000.