Two US novelists on Booker Prize shortlist

Two US authors made the shortlist Tuesday for the 2014 Booker Prize for Fiction, which has opened up the field for the first time to novelists from outside the Common-wealth. The six-strong list for the prize, one of the highest-profile awards in English-language literature, also includes three authors from Britain and one from Australia.
Despite the widened field, British writer Howard Jacobson, the 2010 winner, is the bookmakers' joint favourite with "J", alongside compatriot Ali Smith, who makes the shortlist for the third time with "How to be Both". The US authors nominated are Joshua Ferris with "To Rise Again at a Decent Hour" and Karen Joy Fowler for "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves". They are joined by Australia's Richard Flanagan with "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" and Britain's Neel Mukherjee for "The Lives of Others".