Barry favourite to win Booker
The list includes two first-time novelists, Aravind Adiga, the youngest on the list aged 34, and Steve Toltz.
Others shortlisted are Amitav Ghosh, Linda Grant and Philip Hensher.
Barry was shortlisted in 2005 for his novel A Long, Long Way,
Grant was longlisted in 2002 for Still Here and Hensher, once a Booker judge himself, was longlisted in 2002 for The Mulberry Empire.
The geographical spread of the list includes two Indian authors, two English authors, an Australian author and Irish author Barry. Adiga was born in Madras, Ghosh in Calcutta, Grant in Liverpool, Toltz in Sydney and Hensher lives in south London.
Salman Rushdie, who was on the longlist of 13 books for the Enchantress of Florence, did not make the shortlist.
Michael Portillo, chairman of the judges, who announced the shortlist in London, said the decision not to include Rushdie’s book on the final six was the result of the opinions of five people taken together.
He said that the book “was not one of the six books for us”.
“It does not mean it would not be for anybody else — it easily could be,” Mr Portillo said.
He said the debating process was not heated, but it was passionate and engaged.
Mr Portillo described it as a “strong year” with a “great deal of consensus”.
He said: “We particularly think that this is a great year for readability.
“These books are great page turners.”
He said three or four of the books were very funny, adding: “Book sellers should be pretty pleased with this list.”
In July, Rushdie was named winner of the Best of the Booker Award for Midnight’s Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981.
The winner of this year’s £50,000 (€62,000) prize will be announced on October 14.
Bookmaker William Hill put Barry as 2/1 favourite to win. It also offered odds of 3/1 on Grant and Toltz, 6/1 on Ghosh and 8/1 for both Hensher and Adiga.
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