Shortlist announced for the Booker Prize

updated 7:56 p.m. ET Sept. 21, 2004

LONDON - Officials have announced the shortlist for Britain’s most prestigious literary award, the Man Booker Prize.

Although full of praise for the six shortlisted books, the judging panel criticized the general standard of the 132 novels that were entered.

“Of the books submitted, I have to say quite a number were not very good,” Labour Party lawmaker Chris Smith, chairman of the panel, said Tuesday. Other judges include novelist Tibor Fischer, writer and academic Robert Macfarlane, Erotic Review editor Rowan Pelling and Labour Party lawmaker Chris Smith.

The six books in the running for the $89,500 prize are:

• “Bitter Fruit,” Achmat Dangor
• “The Electric Michelangelo,” Sarah Hall
• “The Line of Beauty,” Alan Hollinghurst
• “The Master,” Colm Toibin
• “I’ll Go to Bed at Noon,” Gerard Woodward
• “Cloud Atlas,” David Mitchell

The winner will be named Oct. 19 at a ceremony in central London. All the shortlisted authors are British apart from Irishman Toibin and South African Dangor.

The Man Booker Prize is open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth of former British colonies.

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