The Man Booker Prize 2017

Paul Auster is the biggest name on the list and 4321 is by far the biggest book. It’s the story of the same boy told in four parallel yet independent narratives, rotating chapter by chapter, against the backdrop of the history of mid-twentieth century America. The judges called it "an ambitious, complex, epic narrative… that is essentially both human and humane".

In Emily Fridlund’s History of Wolves, Linda, a teenage girl living on the edge of a lake in the American Midwest, befriends a mother and child living on the other side. When the father returns, Linda is shunned and fails to avert an impending tragedy. It’s an eerie coming-of-age story that plays with elements of the mystery and thriller genres.

Mohsin Hamid’s own experience of moving between Pakistan, England and the USA has informed Exit West, the story of Nadia and Saeed who meet, fall in love and move around the world through a series of strange black doors which facilitate global mass migration. Hamid was previously shortlisted for The Reluctant Fundamentalist in 2007.

Elmet is Fiona Mozley’s first novel. It concerns Daniel and Cathy who grow up with Daddy in the house he’s built for them, foraging and hunting in Yorkshire’s West Riding. It’s a lyrical commentary on contemporary English society and the judges described it as "timeless in its epic mixture of violence and love". Fiona also works part-time in a small bookshop in York.

George Saunders is an acclaimed short story writer but Lincoln in the Bardo is his first novel. Told through a chorus of 166 different voices, it’s set in the Washington cemetery which Abraham Lincoln visits alone in the middle of the night to commune with the body of his dead child Willie. According to the judges it’s "a novel with a rare capaciousness of mind and heart".

Ali Smith’s Autumn is her fourth book to be shortlisted and the first of a planned seasonally-titled quartet of novels. Autumn is set just after the EU referendum and explores how we perceive time through the minds of a thirty-something woman, a 101 year old man and retrospective glimpses of the 1960s pop artist Pauline Boty.