Two Irish authors are being tipped to be in contention for this year's Booker Prize which is due to be announced this evening.

Paul Lynch's Prophet Song is the favourite among British bookmakers.

Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, which recently won the Eason Novel of the Year, is also being tipped in the betting market.

Also in the top three among punters is This Other Eden by US writer Paul Harding.

The British bookmaker Betway has Prophet Song at 9/4 favourite, while Ladbrokes have a tie between it and This Other Eden both on 11/4.

William Hill has The Bee Sting and This Other Eden as joint favourites at 2/1.

Prophet Song describes a dystopian Ireland sliding towards totalitarian rule and Civil War.

The Bee Sting is tragicomic portrayal of a midlands family in financial and emotional crisis.

This Other Eden by US writer Paul Harding is based on the true story of a mixed race community living on an island off the coast of Maine in the early twentieth century.

The two Dublin-based writers said they were influenced by the current instability around the world.

Paul Lynch has said his novel Prophet Song was inspired by the mood during Covid-19 pandemic and the general sense of global insecurity.

"The sense of unravelling, that many feel democracies around the world are beginning to slide. And also the sense of collapse that happened in Syria and the enormity of the refugees that were coming out of that country".

There were four Irish writers in this year's Booker Longlist which also included Sebastian Barry and Elaine Feeney.

In all there have been 37 Irish writers who made the Booker longlist since it was founded in 1969.

That means Ireland has produced the most nominees per head of population in the prize's history.

Anna Burns became the most recent Irish winner in 2018 with her book Milkman following other Irish winners Anne Enright, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Iris Murdoch.

Speaking after the announcement of his shortlist nomination, Mr Murray puts this success down to the supports that Irish writers receive as well as the country's literary tradition.

"Writing is financially quite a precarious thing to do, so when you've got that support from the Arts Council it really can be the difference between finishing your book and not."

He added "you've got great libraries, you've got great book shops and you've got a nation of readers".

This year is the first time since 2005 that two Irish writers have been shortlisted.

Both John Banville and Sebastian Barry were nominated with Mr Banville going on to win it that year.

There were five judges who picked this year's shortlist out of 163 novels.

The finalists include one British, one Canadian, and two American authors as well as two Irish.

The winner will be announced this evening and will receive a £50,000 prize (€57,542).

However, the real financial reward will be in book sales which have in the past increased by up to 2,000% following a Booker win.

Bookmaker odds are not always a good predictor. When Ms Burns won for Milkman she was second last in the final betting at 6/1.