Three Irish-born writers make Impac shortlist

Three Irish-born writers feature on this year's ten-strong shortlist for the Impac literary prize.

Colm Tóibín's The Masterand Ronan Bennett's Havoc in its Third Yearwere both shortlisted for the €100,000 award - the most lucrative prize in the world for a single work of fiction.

The list also includes Margaret Mazzantini - who was born in Dublin and now lives in Rome - for her second novel Don't Move,which won Italy's prestigous Strega prize for fiction.

Tóibín's fictional biography of American writer Henry James was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2004 and is a strong contender to give Ireland its first winner in the competition which is now in its eleventh year.

Bennett's fourth novel is set in a northern English town in the 1640s amid a climate of fear and moral outrage.

Both will be strongly challenged by English novelist Jonathan Coe's satire on contemporary British politics The Closed Circle.

Also on the list is Nigerian writer Chris Abani for his novel Graceland,which charts the story of a teenage Elvis impersonator in post-colonial Nigeria.

Malaysian writer Vyvyane Loh - who lives in Boston - is nominated for her novel Breaking the Tongue, which chronicles the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in World War II.

Canadian Thomas Wharton is included for his novel The Logogryphas is Pakistani-born writer Nadeem Aslam for his novel Maps for Lost Lovers.

The shortlist is completed by Danish author Jens Christian Grøndahl's novel An Altered Lightand Yasmina Khadra's book The Swallows of Kabul,which depicts life in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Cecilia Ahern's PS I Love You  - which appeared on the Impac's longlist - failed to make the shortlist as did Roddy Doyle's Oh, Play That Thing.