Zoe Heller on shortlist for lucrative literary prize

Novelist Zoe Heller is also a newspaper columnist

Novelist Zoe Heller has made the shortlist of the Impac literary award, the world's most lucrative prize worth 100,000 Euros (£87,600).

The UK author, whose other works include Notes on a Scandal, is on the eight-strong list with The Believers.

British writers Ross Raisin and Robert Edric are also nominated along with Irishman Joseph O'Neill.

The award is chosen from an initial longlist of 156 novels nominated by 163 libraries around the world.

The US, Russia and South Africa are among the 14 countries taking part in the vote, while books in all languages are eligible for nomination.

The winner of the prize, which is run by Dublin's public libraries, will be announced on 17 June.

It will be chosen by a five-member panel chaired by American Eugene R Sullivan.

The other shortlisted authors include Gerbrand Bakker from the Netherlands, Germany's Christoph Hein, American Marilynne Robinson and Frenchwoman Muriel Barbery.