Three Irish novelists are among the nominees for the world's richest literary award, which will be announced in Dublin tonight.
The International Impac Dublin Literary Award was first established in 1996 and is worth €100,000.
An initiative of Dublin City Council and the productivity improvement firm Impac, the prize awards writers of fiction which is published in English. Dublin City Public Libraries received 166 nominations from public libraries from 126 cities worldwide for this year's awards.
Recent previous winners of the award include The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker, Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas, De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage, and Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson.
A total of ten novels are included on this year's shortlist including three Irish novelists. Colm Tóibín, winner in 2006 with The Master, is again nominated, this time for Brooklyn. The New York-based Colum McCann features with his National Book Award-winning Let the Great World Spin, while William Trevor is included for his 14th novel, Love and Summer.
Another Irish writer, Peter Murphy, was included on the award's longlist this year for his well-received debut novel John the Revelator.
Other nominees for this year's award include Barbara Kingsolver for The Lacuna, Yiyun Li for The Vagrants, David Malouf for Ransom and Evie Wyld for After the Fire, A Still, Small Voice.
The five member international judging panel, which includes Irish novelist John Byrne, is chaired by the retired US judge Hon Eugene R Sullivan.
The International Impac Dublin Literary Award 2011 shortlist
Galore by Michael Crummey (Canadian). Doubleday Canada
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (American). Faber & Faber, HarperCollins, USA
The Vagrants by Yiyun Li (Chinese / American) Random House, USA
Ransom by David Malouf (Australian) Random House Australia
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (Irish) Bloomsbury, UK, Random House, USA
Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates (American) Ecco Press, USA
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (Australian) Allen & Unwin
Brooklyn by Colm Toibín (Irish) Viking UK, Scribner, USA
Love and Summer by William Trevor (Irish) Viking, UK
After the Fire, a Still, Small Voice by Evie Wyld (Australian) Pantheon Books, USA
