The winner will be announced on Tuesday 12 October at a dinner at London's Guildhall. The announcement will be broadcast on BBC News across television, radio and online. The winner will receive a cheque for £50,000 while each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives £2,500 and a designer bound edition of their shortlisted book.

Chaired by Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate, the 2010 judges are Rosie Blau, Literary Editor of the Financial Times; Deborah Bull, formerly a dancer, now Creative Director of the Royal Opera House as well as a writer and broadcaster; Tom Sutcliffe, journalist, broadcaster and author and Frances Wilson, biographer and critic.

Andrew Motion said: "It's been a great privilege and an exciting challenge for us to reduce our longlist of thirteen to this shortlist of six outstandingly good novels. In doing so, we feel sure we've chosen books which demonstrate a rich variety of styles and themes - while in every case providing deep individual pleasures."

The shortlist in full:

Peter Carey - Parrot and Olivier in America

Emma Donoghue - Room

Damon Galgut - In a Strange Room

Howard Jacobson - The Finkler Question

Andrea Levy - The Long Song

Tom McCarthy - C

Find out more information on the Man Booker Prize.

Let us know who you think is going to win by leaving a comment below.