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Here are the short list contenders for the Lost Man Booker Prize:

The Birds on the Trees  The Birds on the Trees
By Nina Bawden
When their eldest son Toby is expelled from school, the middle-class security of his parents—Maggie, a writer, and Charlie, a journalist—shatters. Is it drugs? Unhappiness? Veering between private agony and public cheerfulness, the novel reaches into the heart of relationship, raising fundamental questions about parents and their children.



The Bay of Noon  The Bay of Noon
By Shirley Hazzard
Lonely and rootless, Jenny finds herself in war-torn Italy. Against the fading grandeur of Naples, her close friendship with the beautiful and talented Gioconda must make room for a dour Scotsman and for Gioconda's new lover. These newfound friends require much more of Jenny than she had foreseen and gradually reveal to her the changing face of love.



Fire from Heaven  Fire from Heaven
By Mary Renault
Just 20-years-old when his reign began, Alexander the Great was once a boy struggling against the years that would shape him—the dark furies of his mother, his father's talent for war and his sexual grossness. Resolute and fearless with a striking beauty, Fire from Heaven shares how Alexander eventually came to terms with his heritage.



The Driver's Seat  The Driver's Seat
By Muriel Spark
Lise is an unmarried woman working in an accounting firm in Northern Europe. Suffering from years of illness, erratic and often confrontational behaviors and a garish and off-putting style of dress, she travels to Naples and begins to contemplate her ideal death. (The book was filmed in 1974 as Identikit, starring Elizabeth Taylor and featuring Andy Warhol.)



The Vivisector  The Vivisector
By Patrick White
The men and women who court Hurtle Duffield during his long life are, above all, the victims of his art. He dissects their weaknesses with cruel precision: his sister's deformity, a grocer's moonlight indiscretion and the passionate illusions of his mistress. Until he meets an egocentric adolescent who elicits a deeper, more treacherous emotion.



See the complete Lost Man Booker Prize long list

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