Judges for top British literary award the Man Booker Prize spurned big-name novelists in favour of experimental new talent as they announced their shortlist in London Tuesday.
None of the six writers who made the cut for the coveted prize for fiction is well known outside literary circles.
Those who failed to make the shortlist included Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee, with "The Schooldays of Jesus".
The panel of judges told a press conference they wanted to reward creative pioneers.
"Being innovative, being bold, courageous, a willingness to take risks, being novel within the novel -- that's what really excited us because it shows that the art form isn't being nostalgic," said Amanda Foreman, chair of the judges.
Bookmakers Ladbrokes have made Graeme Macrae Burnet favourite to win with "His Bloody Project" at odds of 5/2.
The novel tells the story of a memoir written in prison in 1869 by a triple murderer. The manuscript is discovered by one of his descendants, who shares the author's name. He then edits and publishes the work himself.
Previous winners of the prize include Hilary Mantel for "Wolf Hall", Salman Rushdie for "Midnight's Children" and Michael Ondaatje for "The English Patient".
The winner will be announced in London on October 25.
Other shortlisted novels include US author Paul Beatty's "The Sellout", a satirical novel set in a fictional Los Angeles neighbourhood which explores racial equality and the civil rights movement.
One of the judges was actress Olivia Williams, who read many of the books between rehearsals and performances at London's National Theatre.
She described "The Sellout" as "shocking and unexpectedly funny" and compared it to the work 18th century satirist Jonathan Swift, author of "Gulliver's Travels."
Another was "All That Man Is" by Canadian-British author David Szalay, which judge Jon Day said was about "masculinity and the state of contemporary Europe -- a post-Brexit novel for our times". AFP
