Carey up for international Booker

Carey won the second of his Booker Prizes in 2001

Two-time Booker winner Peter Carey has made the shortlist for the prize's prestigious international honour.

The Australian writer is nominated along with 13 other novelists, including Peruvian Manuel Vargas Llosa and 2001 Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul.

James Kelman is the only UK-born author to make the list, while three Americans including Evan S Connell are included.

The winner, who will be announced in May, is recognised for their an entire body of work.

Prize money

The first award was given in 2004 to Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare and is presented once every two years to a living author.

A total of 12 countries are represented on the shortlist, with seven writers' works being in translation.

India's Mahasweta Devi, Croatian Dubravka Ugresic and Russian author Ludmila Ulitskaya are also in contention to be recognised.

Arnost Lustig from the Czech Republic and Italian Antonio Tabucchi complete the list.

Carey, who now lives in New York, is one of only two authors to have won the Booker Prize on two occasions, the other being South Africa's JM Coetzee.

His books Oscar and Lucinda (1988) and The True History of The Kelly Gang (2001) were successful.

Chair of the judges, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley, said the shortlisting process had made the panel "aware of how unusual and astonishing the literary world really is".

"We've all read books by authors we had never heard of before and they have turned out to be some of the best books we've ever read," she continued.

"It makes me wonder who else is out there untranslated into English."

This year's winner will be awarded a prize of