McCarthy previously wrote novels Remainder and Men in Space The winner of this year’s Man Booker prize will be announced later with Tom McCarthy’s C the 8/15 favourite to win.
His book, the story of one man’s obsession with the early days of radio, goes up against Parrot And Olivier In America, by Peter Carey.
Carey is hoping to becoming the first author to win the prize three times.
Howard Jacobson’s The Finkler Question, Damon Galgut’s In A Strange Room, Andrea Levy’s The Long Song, and Room, by Emma Donoghue, are also contenders.
Bookmakers stopped taking bets on Tuesday afternoon before judges met up to start their discussions.
“We closed our book with Tom McCarthy the 8/15 favourite – the hottest favourite we’ve ever had, displacing last year’s first ever winning odds-on favourite,” William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe told the BBC News website.
Last year’s winner was historical novel Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel.
C, by McCarthy, follows the life of Serge Carrefax, a man transfixed by the technologies of the 20th Century.
Carey, whose book is an exploration of American democracy, won the Booker in 1998, for Oscar and Lucinda, and again in 2001, for True History of the Kelly Gang.
Jacobson’s The Finkler Question, the 6/1 joint second favourite – along with Damon Galgut’s In A Strange Room – is a story of friendship and loss, exclusion and belonging.
In A Strange Room is based on the author’s experience of going through chemotherapy as a child after he was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma.
The case of Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned and raped his own daughter in Austria, is the inspiration for Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, an early favourite for the prize after the shortlist was announced.
The Long Song, Andrea Levy’s tale of the last years of slavery in Jamaica, completes the shortlist.
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