Mohsin Hamid and Kamila Shamsie longlisted for Man Booker Prize

Pakistani writers Mohsin Hamid and Kamila Shamsie find themselves contending for The Man Booker Prize this year.

Mohsin Hamid's fourth novel Exit West has been nominated. Previously, his novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist was shortlisted for the prize. Kamila Shamsie's seventh novel Home Fire is also on the longlist.

Past winner Arundhati Roy is also a contender for this year's Man Booker Prize for fiction. Roy, who won the prize in 1997 for The God of Small Things, is in the running again with her long-awaited second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.

Auster's intimate epic 4 3 2 1 and Whitehead's fantasy-tinged historical saga The Underground Railroad are among four works by US authors on the list, alongside Emily Fridlund's coming-of-age story History of Wolves and George Saunders' magical, mournful Lincoln in the Bardo.

Previous finalists on the 2017 list include Britain's Zadie Smith, for Swing Time and Ireland's Sebastian Barry, for Days Without End.

The 13 books announced Thursday were chosen from 144 novels submitted by publishers.

Literary critic Lola Young, chairwoman of the judging panel, said the list contained works of “huge energy, imagination and variety.” Founded in 1969 and originally open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, the Booker expanded in 2014 to include all English-language authors. Its first American winner was Paul Beatty's “The Sellout” in 2016.

The six finalists will be named Sept. 13, and the winner of the 50,000-pound ($65,000) prize will be announced on Oct. 17.