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James Kelman sips a black coffee and tugs at his crewneck jumper. Cuban music pumps from speakers in the ceiling. A shaft of light splits this Glasgow cafe in two; threads and dust float in the air. Kelman's eyes are pale blue, his voice gravelly. Were he wearing chainmail and a loincloth, he could pass for the Thracian slave-turned-warrior Spartacus, as played by Kirk Douglas, but without such a notably cleft chin. At 62, he is of an age where his stature as an artist should be obvious. To call him a great Scottish writer would be accurate; to call him simply a great writer would be more concise.
Kelman's inclusion as "the only Briton" on the shortlist for the 2009 Man Booker International Prize - a sister award to the yearly Booker, recognising a writer's overall body of work - will chime as richly deserved with those who value the Glaswegian author's prose, and as an abomination for those who don't and never have. He will learn next month whether he has received the accolade, and its GBP60,000 tax-free prize, prior to the award ceremony in Dublin in July. The 14strong list of contenders includes the Australian Peter Carey and Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru. "It's a strong list in terms of the work people have produced, " says Kelman. "Even the ones I don't particularly like." But the smart money, he says, would be backing other horses, not his own. "I'm one of the big outsiders - the odds are probably about 16 to one. I'm the second youngest guy on the list, apparently, so they probably think that if I don't drop dead, I might get it in the future."
The Canadian short-story-writer Alice Munro would be favourite, he says, or the Indian author Mahasweta Devi. The Kenyan writer Ngugi Wa Thiong'o must have a chance, too, Kelman thinks. "He'd probably be about seven to one if I was the bookie."
Try betting that a Kelman victory would cause a backlash from sections of the British press and the bookies wouldn't touch you with a bargepole. His work has been a thorn in certain sides since his first novel, The Busconductor Hines, entered the running for the Booker 25 years ago....