London: Indian journalist Aravind Adiga joined Salman Rushdie (The Enchantress of Florence) and Amitav Ghosh (Sea of Poppies) in the long list for the Man Booker literary prize, announced yesterday.

Five first novels are in the running for the prize, including Adiga's The White Tiger and Tom Rob Smith's Child 44 - his debut detective thriller set in Soviet Russia.

Adiga, who is Times magazine's Asia correspondent, exposes the underbelly of India's new Tiger economy. The story is told through the letters of Balram who escapes the poverty of rural India to become a rich businessman in Delhi, but has committed a murder to reach his place in the "new" India.

Pakistani journalist Mohammed Hanif also makes it onto the longlist with A Case of Exploding Mangoes, an exuberant exploration of the death of General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq,  president of Pakistan from 1978 to 1988.

The longlist of 13 books, often referred to as the Man Booker Dozen, was chosen from 112 entries.