The Scottish novelist Ali Smith has been shortlisted for the most prestigious prize in fiction, the Man Booker Prize.

Her novel Autumn, published by Hamish Hamilton, has been named in the six-strong shortlist for the annual prize.

Her work joins 4321 by Paul Auster, History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Elmet by Fiona Mozley and Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.

Fridlund and Mozley are both shortlisted for the first time, while Hamid and Smith have made the shortlist in previous years.

The shortlist is comprised of two British, one British-Pakistani and three American writers.

The Herald's review of Autumn noted: "Autumn is the first in a series of four novels connected to the seasons and to some it might seem a strange way to start: if Smith follows the seasons in sequence she will complete the quartet with Summer, a similarly strange place to end.

"But an often warm and friendly strangeness is part of Smith’s appeal.

"Her experimentation is close, rather than lofty and distant; her characters wholly sympathetic for all their cut-up representation; her intellectualism lightly worn, not point-scoring."

This year’s judges are chaired by Baroness Lola Young.

"With six unique and intrepid books that collectively push against the borders of convention, this year’s shortlist both acknowledges established authors and introduces new voices to the literary stage," said Baroness Young.

"Playful, sincere, unsettling, fierce: here is a group of novels grown from tradition but also radical and contemporary.

"The emotional, cultural, political and intellectual range of these books is remarkable, and the ways in which they challenge our thinking is a testament to the power of literature."

Lincoln in the Bardo, about the US President coming to terms with the death of a beloved son, has already been installed as the favourite to win the £50,000 prize by bookmakers.