Graeme Macrae Burnet makes Man Booker Shortlist

Judges have whittled down the shortlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize, with Kilmarnock-born writer Graeme Macrae Burnet among the final six novelists in the running for his 19th century-set novel His Bloody Project.

Published on tiny Scottish imprint Saraband, it tells the story of a series of murders in a small crofting community in Applecross in the Highlands and follows the trial of the young man accused of the killings. "As a writer, all you want is for readers to have the opportunity to discover your work,” the Glasgow-based writer told the BBC, “and a Man Booker nomination propels your book to a wider audience than I could ever have dreamed of. It's quite astonishing." Burnet’s achievement is all the more astonishing when you look at the big names he beat to the shortlist, including JM Coetzee, AL Kennedy and Pulitzer-winner Elizabeth Strout.

Praised for taking risks with language and form by the judges, Burnet’s novel in now in the running for the £50,000 prize alongside Paul Beatty’s satire The Sellout, Deborah Levy’s Hot Milk, Ottessa Moshfegh's Eileen, David Szalay's All That Man Is and Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing. Levy is the only previously-shortlisted author, for Swimming Home in 2012.

“As a group we were excited by the willingness of so many authors to take risks with language and form,” said jury chair Amanda Foreman. “The final six reflect the centrality of the novel in modern culture – in its ability to champion the unconventional, to explore the unfamiliar, and to tackle difficult subjects.”

On Saraband, Foreman said the place on the shortlist is "a significant achievement for the tiny Glasgow-based house run by two people."

The winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize will be announced at a ceremony on 25 Oct. Joining Foreman on the jury are Jon Day, Abdulrazak Gurnah, David Harsent and Olivia Williams.