Impac literary prize shortlist revealed

Vietnam war veteran Karl Marlantes' first novel Matterhorn is competing with Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad to the €100,000 Impac Dublin award: one of the world's most lucrative honours for a single novel.

The shortlist for the prize, chosen by judges from a longlist of 147 titles nominated by public libraries around the world, has eschewed acclaimed novels including Howard Jacobson's Booker winner The Finkler Question and Israeli author David Grossman's To the End of the Land to plump for two debuts. Marlantes' Matterhorn, which took the former marine 30 years to write, is the story of a young man during the Vietnam war, while Australian author Jon Bauer's first novel Rocks in the Belly is a thriller in which a young boy is pushed to breaking point by the attention his mother lavishes on the foster sons she takes in.

Debuts have a strong history of winning the Impac – first-time novelists Michael Thomas, Rawi Hage and Gerbrand Bakker won in 2008, 2009 and 2010 – but Marlantes and Bauer are up against strong competition for this year's award. Egan took the Pulitzer for her story of an ageing former punk rocker and his assistant, while the British-born, Sierra Leone-raised writer Aminatta Forna won the Commonwealth prize for The Memory of Love, set in post-war Sierra Leone. Canadian writer David Bergen's The Matter with Morris, a newspaper columnist's quest for meaning in his life, was shortlisted for the Giller award.

Just two novels in translation make the shortlist for this year's Impac: Israeli author Yishai Sarid's Limassol, in which an Israeli secret service agent goes undercover as an aspiring novelist targeting a Palestinian poet's terrorist son, and acclaimed Brazilian writer Cristovão Tezza's The Eternal Son, an autobiographical novel about a father whose son is born with Down's syndrome.

The Impac shortlist is completed with Scottish author Jon McGregor's Even the Dogs, set around the death of an alcoholic and the drug addicts who surround him, British writer Tim Pears's Landed, in which a man returns to the Welsh borders of his childhood, and American Willy Vlautin's tale of a boy and his horse, Lean on Pete.

"All of these books have been warmly received and critically acclaimed," said Margaret Hayes, Dublin city librarian. "The issues they cover are serious and include war, the music industry, addiction, bereavement – loss of a son and of a limb, raising a Down's syndrome child, the devastating effect on children of neglect and perceived neglect, and coming of age. There are however, plenty of moments of tenderness, humour and hope throughout."

The 10 titles were nominated by libraries in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, The Netherlands and the US, and chosen by a five-member judging panel including the British novelist Tim Parks, the Irish author Mike McCormack and the Trinidadian writer Elizabeth Nunez. Aiming to promote "excellence in world literature", the Impac is open to novels written in any language, provided they have been published in English or English translation. This year's winner will be announced on 13 June.

The shortlist

Rocks in the Belly by Jon Bauer

The Matter with Morris by David Bergen

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna

Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

Landed by Tim Pears

Limassol by Yishai Sarid, translated from Hebrew by Barbara Harshav

The Eternal Son by Cristovão Tezza, translated from Portuguese by Alison Entrekin

Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin