London: J.M. Coetzee could become the first author to win the Man Booker Prize three times after being longlisted in the literary award's prestigious "dozen" of 13 books.
South African-born Coetzee was the first author to win the Booker prize twice – but both those prizes came before he relocated to Adelaide in 2002 and became an Australian citizen.
"In the absence of Richard Flanagan this year, I am happy to be flying the Australian flag," Coetzee told Fairfax Media, referring to the 2014 Booker winner.
Coetzee's The Schooldays of Jesus has been named in the 2016 longlist alongside four authors with debut novels: David Means (Hystopia), Virginia Reeves (Work Like Any Other), Ottessa Moshfegh (Eileen) and Wyl Menmuir (The Many).
The Schooldays of Jesus is due for release in Australia in October 2016. It is the sequel to the 2013 novel Childhood of Jesus which tells the story of middle-aged man Simon meeting five-year-old David on a boat and deciding to look after him when they land in a new country.
The Nobel prize-winner won his first Booker in 1983 for Life & Times of Michael K, and again in 1999 for Disgrace.
Now a Professor of Literature at the University of Adelaide, where he is patron of the J.M Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, the linguist is also a prominent animal rights campaigner, recently telling an audience in Spain that animals don't need a human's love, but their justice.
Chair of the 2016 Booker judges Amanda Foreman described the longlist as one "to be relished".
"This is a very exciting year. The range of books is broad and the quality extremely high," Ms Foreman said.
"Each novel provoked intense discussion and, at times, passionate debate, challenging our expectations of what a novel is and can be."
"The writing is uniformly fresh, energetic and important. It is a longlist to be relished.'"
The shortlist will be announced in London on September ahead of the naming of the £50,000 ($A87,000) winner on 25 October.
The 2016 longlist, or "the Man Booker dozen", of 13 novels, is:
The Sellout - Paul Beatty (US)
The Schooldays of Jesus - J.M. Coetzee (South African-Australian)
Serious Sweet - A.L. Kennedy (UK)
Hot Milk - Deborah Levy (UK)
His Bloody Project - Graeme Macrae Burnet (UK)
The North Water - Ian McGuire (UK)
Hystopia - David Means (US)
The Many - Wyl Menmuir (UK)
Eileen - Ottessa Moshfegh (US)
Work Like Any Other - Virginia Reeves (US)
My Name Is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout (US)
All That Man Is - David Szalay (Canada-UK)
Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Madeleine Thien (Canada)
