- The Testament of Mary – Toibin, Colm – ISBN: 9780241962978
- We Need New Names NoViolet Bulawayo – ISBN: 9780701188047
- The Luminaries – Catton, Eleanor – ISBN: 9781847084316
- Harvest – Crace, Jim – ISBN: 9780330445665
- The Lowland – Lahiri, Jhumpa – ISBN: 9781408828113
- A Tale for the Time Being – Ozeki, Ruth L. – ISBN: 9780857867971
The six books on the list could not be more diverse. There are examples from novelists from New Zealand, England, Canada, Ireland and Zimbabwe – each with its own highly distinctive taste. They range in size from the 832 pages of Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries to the 104-page The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín. The times represented stretch from the biblical Middle East (Tóibín) to contemporary Zimbabwe (NoViolet Bulawayo) by way of 19th-century New Zealand (Catton), 1960s India (Jumpha Lahiri), 18th-century rural England (Crace) and modern Tokyo (Ruth Ozeki). The oldest author on the list, Jim Crace, is 67, the youngest (indeed the youngest ever shortlistee), Eleanor Catton, is 28. Colm Tóibín has written more than 15 books, The Luminaries is only Catton's second.
