J.M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Strout on Man Booker Prize list

FILE- In this May 27, 2006 file photo, South African novelist, recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature, John M. Coetzee reads during Literature Days in Solothurn, Switzerland. Coetzee and U.S. Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout are among the contenders for Britain's prestigious Booker Prize for fiction. (Yoshiko Kusano/ Keystone via AP, File) FILE- In this May 27, 2006 file photo, South African novelist, recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature, John M. Coetzee reads during Literature Days in Solothurn, Switzerland. Coetzee and U.S. Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout are among the contenders for Britain's prestigious Booker Prize for fiction. (Yoshiko Kusano/ Keystone via AP, File)

By Associated Press July 27, 2016 2 min read

LONDON (AP) – Celebrated South African novelist J.M. Coetzee and U.S. Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout are among the contenders announced Wednesday for Britain’s prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction.

Coetzee’s “The Schooldays of Jesus” and Strout’s “My Name is Lucy Barton” are among the best-known titles on a 13-book longlist that spurned big-name writers including Ian McEwan and Don DeLillo in favor of less famous authors and first-time novelists.

Coetzee, who lives in Australia, is the early bookies’ favorite and will become the first triple Booker winner if he takes the prize. He won in 1983 with “Life and Times of Michael K” and in 1999 with “Disgrace.”

Strout won the fiction Pulitzer in 2009 for “Olive Kitteridge,” which was turned into a HBO miniseries starring Frances McDormand.

The eclectic list features four first novels – David Means’ “Hystpoia,” Wyl Menmuir’s “The Many,” Ottessa Moshfegh’s “Eileen” and Virginia Reeves’ “Work Like Any Other” – alongside established authors such as A.K. Kennedy for “Serious Sweet” and Deborah Levy for “Hot Milk.”