Man Booker Prize winner for 2012 to be announced today

New Delhi: The Man Booker Prize winner for 2012 will be announced today, as some are calling it "the book world's equivalent of Oscars night". India's Jeet Thayil is also in the running for his debut book Narcopolis, a prize worth 50,000 pounds.

Indian writer Jeet Thayil's first novel 'Narcopolis', described as a compelling tale of Mumbai's hazy world of opium addiction, has made it to the six-author shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2012.

The announcement is expected around 9.40 pm GMT (i.e. 2.40 am IST), at London's Guildhall during a live telecast on the BBC.

Booker Prize for 2012 to be announced today

India\'s Jeet Thayil is also in the running for his debut book Narcopolis.

Apart from 53-year-old Kerala-born Thayil, authors on the shortlist are Tan Twan Eng (The Garden of Evening Mists), Deborah Levy (Swimming Home), Hilary Mantel (Bring up the Bodies), Alison Moore (The Lighthouse) and Will Self (Umbrella).

Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai and Aravind Adiga are few Indians who have won have been bestowed with the honour in the past.

The prize aims to promote the finest in fiction by rewarding the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. To maintain the consistent excellence of the Man Booker Prize, judges are chosen from a wide range of disciplines, including critics, writers and academics, but also poets, politicians and actors, all with a passion for quality fiction.

The winner of the Man Booker Prize receives £ 50,000 and, like all the shortlisted authors, a cheque for £ 2,500 and a designer bound copy of their book. Fulfilling one of the objectives of the prize - to encourage the widest possible readership for the best in literary fiction - the winner and the shortlisted authors now enjoy a dramatic increase in book sales worldwide.