At 30,000 words, Irish writer Tóibín's 104-page novel about Mary's mourning for Jesus is the shortest book ever to be shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. Debate as to whether it is a novel or a novella will undoubtedly surface in the final judges' meeting. Read the Guardian review Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian
Catton, a 28-year-old New Zealander, is the youngest writer on the shortlist, and her 832-page epic is the longest book. It's her second novel, following on from the dazzling The Rehearsal, which was shortlisted for the Guardian first book prize.
Read the Observer review Photograph: Robert Catto/PR
Lahiri has lived most of her life in the US but is of Bengali heritage, thus justifying a place on the Booker shortlist. A star since her debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won a Pulitzer in 2000, she has recently been appointed to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities by Barack Obama.
Read the Observer review Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
The bookies' favourite, and the only English writer on the shortlist, takes a bracingly socialist line in a timeless fable of English land enclosures.
Read the Guardian review Photograph: Geraint Lewis/Rex Features
Bulawayo is the first Zimbabwean to be shortlisted for the Booker and only debut novelist to make it on to the shortlist. The novel is an extended version of her Caine prize-winning short story about a Zimbabwean girl coming of age in the US
Read the Guardian review Photograph: Mark Pringle/PR
The Japanese-Canadian writer, who is also an ordained Zen Buddhist priest, makes the list with a post-tsunami novel which astounded Guardian reviewer Liz Jensen with its juggling of 'Schrödinger's cat, quantum mechanics, Japanese funeral rituals, crow species, fetish cafes, the anatomy of barnacles, 163 footnotes and six appendices'.
Read the Guardian review Photograph: Kris Krug/Canongate
