Her nearest sales rival is Ali Smith’s How To Be Both, available only in
hardback and released more recently, with a mere 4,669 copies sold.

They are followed by Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road To The Deep North
(3,566 copies), J: A Novel by Howard Jacobson (3,263 copies), Neel
Mukherjee’s The Lives of Others (2,782 copies) and To Rise Again At A Decent
Hour by Joshua Ferris, another American, who has sold 1,775 copies in
hardback and a further 655 in paperback.

Mukherjee and Smith are the bookmakers’ favourites to take the prize. Howard
Jacobson would join a select band who have won the Booker twice if he
triumphs, having won in 2010 with The Finkler Question.

The shortlist features British, US and Australian authors. The decision to
make the Booker a truly international prize has been welcomed by many but
Peter Carey, an Australian and another two-time winner, is among those who
disapprove.

“I suppose I’m not generally in love with the notion of global marketing,”
he said.