A trio of Pauls and only two women on the Booker shortlist

The Booker prize shortlist is weighted towards male writers for the first time in eight years - and half of the shortlisted authors are called Paul.

- Ella Creamer

Four of the six shortlist places went to novels by men: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, This Other Eden by Paul Harding, and If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery. Two books by women, Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein and Western Lane by Chetna Maroo, complete the list. None of the six authors have been shortlisted before.

Murray, an Irish novelist, was shortlisted for The Bee Sting, a tragicomedy about an Irish family in crisis. The judging panel, chaired by the Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan, said Murray's fourth novel was "funny, sad and truthful" and that the characters, with "myriad flaws and problems", were unforgettable.

Lynch, also Irish, has made the list with Prophet Song, a "propulsive, unsparing and terribly moving" book warning of "the precarity of democratic ideals", said the judges. The novel, set in Dublin, is a dystopian tale of Ireland under a tyrannical government.