Patrick deWitt Named to Man Booker Prize Shortlist

Patrick deWitt

Britain's prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction announced its shortlist of six novels today—and Portland's Patrick deWitt made the cut with his second book, The Sisters Brothers.

This means deWitt, whose British Columbian birth makes him eligible for the literary honor as a citizen of the Commonwealth, will travel to London in October to hear whether he or one of five other finalists—including Julian Barnes—will take home the Man Booker. (Previous winners include Salman Rushdie, Kingsley Amis and Margaret Atwood.)

We're almost certain this makes deWitt the first Oregon resident to receive this honor—but The Guardian reports that The Sisters Brothers is also the first Western ever shortlisted.

"Inevitably it was hard to whittle down the longlist to six titles," Dame Stella Rimington said in a press release that we probably wouldn't bother quoting except that her name is Dame Stella Rimington. "We were sorry to lose some great books. But, when push came to shove, we quickly agreed that these six very different titles were the best."

WW obtained an exclusive interview with deWitt last month, where he admitted: "I've never really thought of my work as being far-reaching enough to be included on lists like that." Read the Q&A here.

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