Sarah Waters, Alice Munroe and Cormac McCarthy have been shortlisted for this year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
'The Night Watch', 'The View from Castle Rock' and 'The Road' are up for the UK's oldest literary award alongside Orange Prize winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 'Half of a Yellow Sun' 'Electricity' by Ray Robinson and James Lasdun's 'Seven Lies'.
Another six books, including accounts of English diarist John Evelyn, Welsh poet RS Thomas and Scottish writer George Mackay Brown, are nominated on a separate biography list.
The awards are presented annually by the University of Edinburgh to eligible English-language publications.
The winners will be announced at a public awards ceremony on Saturday, 25 August.
Last year's prizes went to Ian McEwan for 'Saturday' and 'Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream' by Sue Prideaux.
Fiction Shortlist
'Half of a Yellow Sun' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
'Seven Lies' by James Lasdun
'The Road Picador' by Cormac McCarthy
'The View from Castle Rock' by Alice Munro
'Electricity' by Ray Robinson
'The Night Watch' by Sarah Waters
Biography Shortlist
'George Mackay Brown: The Life' by Maggie Fergusson
'Mellon: An American Life' by David Cannadine
'Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family And Fatherland' by Carmen Callil
'John Evelyn: Living For Ingenuity' by Gillian Darley
'The Man Who Went into the West: The Life Of RS Thomas' by Byron Rogers
'The High Road to China: George Bogle, The Panchen Lama and the First British Expedition To Tibet' by Kate Teltscher
