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Mumbai-born Rohinton Mistry shortlisted for Booker Prize

H S Rao in London

Mumbai-born writer Rohinton Mistry, who migrated to Canada 27 years ago, is among the six shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize, Britain's top literary award worth 50,000 pounds.

Mistry's literary work Family Matters, a domestic saga set in the Mumbai Parsi community of his upbringing, is a 9-2 favourite among the bookies while William Trevor was installed as 9-4 hot favourite for his novel The Story of Lucy Gault.

Fifty-year-old Mistry spent 23 years in India before migrating to Canada in 1975.

He was shortlisted for both of his previous novels, with his first, Such A Long Journey, appearing on the 1991 list alongside William Trevor.

Family Matters has been described as a 'peculiar brand of social and domestic tragedy combining nostalgia, foreboding and an underlying wistfulness'.

Another favourite is the Australian novelist Tim Winton for Dirt Music closely followed by Spanish Yann Martel at 7-2.

The work of Chicago-born Carol Shields is rated 5-1 along with Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the British Museum on October 22. The shortlist marked a surprise omission for authors such as Anita Brookner for The Next Big Thing and William Boyd for Any Human Heart.

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