Carey eyes a hat-trick but Levy is Man Booker favourite

Published on Tuesday 27 July 2010 19:36

PETER Carey could become the first author to scoop the Man Booker Prize for Fiction three times - but Andrea Levy is the bookies' favourite to triumph this year.

The titles of 13 books tipped by judges to "provoke and entertain" were longlisted today for the "Man Booker dozen".

The list, whittled down from 138 works, is packed with established names, boasting books by previously shortlisted authors David Mitchell, Damon Galgut and former Booker judge Rose Tremain.

Carey, who is in the running for Parrot And Olivier In America, has won twice - in 1988 for Oscar And Lucinda and 2001 for the True History Of The Kelly Gang. If he can make this year a hat-trick, then he will become the first author to be awarded the prize three times, organisers confirmed.

Parrot And Olivier In America, a re-imagining of Alexis de Tocqueville's travels, centres around Olivier, an aristocrat born in France just after the Revolution, and Parrot, the son of an itinerant English printer who dreamed of being an artist but has ended up a servant. However, the bookmaker William Hill has made Levy, who is in the running for The Long Song, its favourite to win the prize, with Mitchell in second place.

Small Island author Levy was inspired to write the book after attending a conference discussing the legacy of slavery, where a woman asked how she could be proud of her Jamaican roots when her ancestors had been slaves.

Levy said on her website: "I cannot recall the panel's response to the woman's question but, as I sat silently in the audience, I do remember my own. Of Jamaican heritage myself, I wondered why anyone would feel any ambivalence or shame at having a slave ancestry." The Long Song is set on a sugar cane plantations in 19th century Jamaica.

Howard Jacobson, who also appears on this year's longlist for The Finkler Question, has been longlisted twice before. Mitchell is in the running for The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet, while Galgut is nominated for In A Strange Room. Tremain has been put forward for her novel Trespass, which explores the region of Cevennes in France.

Chairman of judges? Sir Andrew Motion, said: "Here are 13 exceptional novels - books we have chosen for their intrinsic quality. We feel confident they will provoke and entertain."