AN AUTHOR from north Belfast is among three Irish writers who have been long-listed for the 2018 Man Booker Prize.
Anna Burns, who was born in the city and raised in the Ardoyne area, received the nod for her book Milkman which is set during the Troubles.
Donal Ryan from Co Tipperary is long-listed for his novel From a Low and Quiet Sea, while Sally Rooney from Co Mayo is nominated for Normal People.
They are among 13 authors on the long-list for the prestigious annual literary award, for which the winning writer receives £50,000.
The long-list contains five writers from Britain, three from Ireland, three from the US and two from Canada.
Ms Burns was born in Belfast 1962 and now lives in East Sussex, England.
She is the author of two previous novels, No Bones and Little Constructions, and a novella called Mostly Hero.
In 2001 she won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, and was short-listed for the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction.
Her book Milkman, published by Faber and Faber, tells the story of a young woman forced into a relationship with an older man during the Troubles.
Man Booker Prize judges described it as "frightening and inspirational" as well as "stylistically utterly distinctive".
Mr Ryan, a writer and lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick, is long-listed for the second time.
Ms Rooney (27), who is one of four of long-listed authors aged under 30, said it was a "quite a surreal, strange feeling" to be nominated.
The Man Booker Prize is open to writers of any nationality, writing in English and published in Britain or Ireland.
Until now the books had to be published by a UK publisher, but the rules were changed this year to include Irish publishers.
The short-list will be announced in September and the winner in October.
