Mysterious Italian novelist could become first-ever anonymous Booker winner

For the first time, the Man Booker International prize could go to an anonymous writer this year, if a story of lifelong friendship in southern Italy beats the other five contestants in a short list announced this week. "The Story of the Lost Child", the fourth and final instalment in a tale of friendship, family and power centred on noisy Naples, is up against rivals that include Turkish Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk. The true identity of its writer, who has published this series and three oth