The winner of the 47th Man Booker Prize can be assured of a few things.
New audiences will open up and books sales will increase substantially.
Five of the last six winners of the prize for English language fiction have earned seven figure sums for their publishers.
When Hilary Mantel won in 2009 for Wolf Hall, sales of the book jumped from 12,000 before the long list was announced to 225,000 after winning.
Yet the winner will also be forever linked to a prize with a history of controversy.
In 2001, former judge A.L. Kennedy called the prize 'a pile of crooked nonsense', and said the winner is determined by 'who knows who, who's sleeping with who, who's selling drugs to who, who's married to who, whose turn it is'.
Until last year, authors from the US were not considered. Their inclusion has been the source of both celebration and condemnation in literary circles.
US novelist Hanya Yanagihara's book, A Little Life, is considered a favourite among the six nominees.
Hawaiian-born American author Hanya Yanagihara's second novel has received extremely good reviews.
A Little Life deals with a group of friends who trying to 'make it' in New York, but it becomes clear that it's mostly about one character who was terribly sexually abused by a monk as a child.
If, as predicted by many, Yanagihara takes out the prize, she would be become the first ever American to do so.
Chigozie Obioma: The Fisherman
Nigerian author Obioma's debut novel is about four brothers and a madman, who prophesises that one brother will murder another when they meet while fishing.
Speaking to Books and Arts, Obioma said he intended the book to serve as an allegory for the foundation of Nigeria and the forces of colonialism.
Marlon James: A Brief History of Seven Killings
Released late last year, Jamaican author James' third book is a gangland novel about an assassination attempt on Bob Marley, which offers a window into 1970s and 1980s Jamaica.
Tom McCarthy: Satin Island
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2010 for C, the British author's fourth novel centres on the protagonist 'U' who works for a shadowy corporate consultancy.
The brief 208 pages of McCarthy's novel have been described as 'dizzying', 'manic' and 'Kafkaesque'.
Anne Tyler: A Spool of Blue Thread
The most famous of the shortlisted finalists, Tyler is, at age 73, also the eldest.
A family saga, A Spool of Blue Thread fits the mould of the American's previous novels, with well-drawn characters and a focus on the tension between family and self-fulfilment.
Speaking to Books and Arts in April, The Australian's chief literary critic Geordie Williamson said Tyler's latest novel 'deserved to win every prize going'.
Sunjeev Sahota: The Year of the Runaways
In his second novel, British author Sahota focuses on illegal immigrants attempting to make a new life for themselves in Britain.
This timely book centres around four young Sikh runaways and their fragile, lonely position in their new country.
Salman Rushdie declared the novel to be 'the real thing'.
'All you can do is surrender happily to its power,' he said.
What are the bookies saying?
Hanya Yanagihara is the favourite among international betting agents, paying 6/4, with Sunjeev Sahota's The Year of the Runaways nearest at 5/2.
There is not a lot of love for Tom McCarthy's Satin Island, which is sitting at the back of the pack at 16/1.
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