This year's Man Booker Prize shortlist has kicked up a minor storm as all of the titles are historical books, shunning contemporary fiction. The 2009 nominees are:

• 'The ChildrenÂ’s Book' by AS Byatt
• 'Summertime' by JM Coetzee
• 'The Quickening Maze' by Adam Foulds
• 'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel
• 'The Glass Room' by Simon Mawer
• 'The Little Stranger' by Sarah Waters

And it isn't the first time that the prestigious awards have caused a stir. The previous ceremony saw Salman Rushdie's novel 'Midnight's Children' win the Best of the Booker prize to mark the literary award's 40th anniversary.

Rushdie's winning novel is based on events that took place before and after the partition of India in 1947. It is famous for its employment of magic realism, and influences from Rushdie's own childhood and exploration of this troubled, diverse continent.

Rushdie beat off competition from five other previous Booker prize winners, all of which held an excellent chance of victory. Check out the books on the short-list that 'Midnight's Children' proved victorious over.

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