The American Jewish writer Paul Auster has been shortlisted for the Man Booker prize for his novel 4321 which gives the reader four versions of the life of a Jewish boy born, like Auster, in 1947.

The New York Times called the book “a work of outsize ambition and remarkable craft, a monumental assemblage of competing and complementary fictions, a novel that contains multitudes.”

It tells four versions of the life of Archibald Isaac Ferguson from New Jersey. Each version of Archie falls in love with a girl called Amy Schneiderman.

It is a long book, with the hardback edition running to 866 pages.  Auster said: “Because of the novel’s premise, I knew it would be long before I started writing it. The challenge was to keep it as swift and lean as possible, which meant cutting down rather than adding on. I know the book is an elephant, but I hope it's a sprinting elephant.”

The rest of the shortlist comprises History of Wolves  by Emily Fridlund, Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid,Elmet by Fiona Mozley,Lincoln of the Bordo by George Saunders and Autumn by Ali Smith. The winner will be announced on October 17.