Good news for South Africans - we may be plagued by troubles in the sporting department, but at least we have one South African doing us proud. J.M. Cotzee has made it through to the shortlist of this year's Booker Prize for his book, Summertime. Coetzee won the Booker for Disgrace in 1999 and The Life and Times of Michael K in 1983 as well as the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003.
With two Bookers already under his belt, if Coetzee manages to beat the competition again he will be the only person ever to have won three Booker Prizes.
Summertime is a fictionalised memoir that focuses on John Coetzee as a young writer in his thirties. His book faces stiff comptetition from the bookmaker's favourite - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, a historical novel about Henry VIII's advisor, Thomas Cromwell.
The winner will be announced on 6th October this year, and will receive a £50 000 cheque as well as a predictable jump in sales. Last year's winner, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, sold a cool half million copies and has been translated into 30 languages.
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