Irish author Sebastian Barry's novel A Long Long Waywas named as one of the eight-strong shortlist for the Impac literary prize today.
Barry's book tells the tale of Willie Dunne, who leaves Dublin to fight for the for the Allies in the First World War and finds himself caught on foreign shores as the Easter Rising awaits to erupt back home.
The €100,000 Impac award is the most lucrative prize in the world for a single work of fiction and the winner will be announced June 14th.
Last year Colm Tóibín became the first Irish winner when he scooped the award for his book The Master.
The shortlist features works by two English authors, Julian Barnes's Arthur & Georgeand Peter Hobbs's The Short Day Dying.
Two US authors - Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Closeand Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men- also feature.
The list is completed by South African author JM Coetzee's Slow Man, Shalimar The Clownby Indian author Salman Rushdie and Out Stealing Horsesby Norwegian Per Petterson.
