Irish author Emma Donoghue's novel Room is among six novels shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize which will be announced in London later this evening.
The idea for Donoghue’s book was triggered by Josef Fritzl’s incarceration of his daughter Elisabeth.
The first half of the book takes place entirely within the 11 foot-square room in which a young woman has spent her last seven years, since being abducted aged 19. The novel is told through the voice of her son, Jack, a five-year-old.
The bookies place Donoghue as third favourite at 6/1 to scoop the award.
Tom McCarthy's novel C, which follows the short life of Serge Carrefax through the upheavals of early 20th century Europe, is the overwhelming favourite to win the €50,000 prize.
Also shortlisted for the prize are Parrot and Olivier in America by Australia's Peter Carey - bidding to become the first author to win the Booker three times.
Carey won the 2001 Booker for True History of the Kelly Gang and was successful in 1988 with Oscar and Lucinda. He is one of just two authors to have won twice, the other being South African JM Coetzee.
South Africa's Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room and British writer Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question and Andrea Levy's The Long Song round off the list of nominees for this year's Booker.
Salman Rushdie, who won for 1981's Midnight's Children, underlined the importance of winning the Booker Prize in a recent interview.
"It made a big difference, no question," Rushdie said last week. "In England the paperback of 'Midnight's Children' has sold well over a million copies, and it wouldn't have done that (without the Booker). It's very beneficial."
Midnight's Children also went on to claim the "Best of the Booker" title that was decided by a popular vote in 2008.
The 2009 prize was awarded to Hilary Mantel for historical novel Wolf Hall, which depicted Henry VIII's court through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell.
Past winners of the competition, which aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or Ireland, include John Banville, VS Naipaul and William Golding.