THE SHORTLIST FOR the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014 has two US and one Australian author.

The prestigious literary award opened up to writers of any nationality for the first time in its history.

For the past 46 years, the prize was only open to authors from the UK & Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe.

Three British authors are also included in the shortlist of six books – taken from a longlist of 13.

The 6 books are:

• To Rise Again at a Decent by Joshua Ferris
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Jay Fowler
• J by Howard Jacobson
• The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee
• How to Be Both by Ali Smith

Two authors have previously appeared on the prize shortlist. Howard Jacobson is a former winner of the prize, with The Finkler Question, in 2010.

Ali Smith has been shortlisted twice before, with The Accidental (2005) and Hotel World (2001).

Chair of the 2014 judges, AC Grayling, commented on behalf of the judges:

We are delighted to announce our international shortlist. As the Man Booker Prize expands its borders, these six exceptional books take the reader on journeys around the world, between the UK, New York, Thailand, Italy, Calcutta and times past, present and future.

“We had a lengthy and intensive debate to whittle the list down to these six. It is a strong, thought-provoking shortlist which we believe demonstrates the wonderful depth and range of contemporary fiction in English.”

Read: All the books you need to read this year>