The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction has announced the five first novels shortlisted for the 2006 John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize:
The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo by Peter Orner (Little Brown) The Dissident by Nell Freudenberger (Ecco) Cellophane by Marie Arana (Dial) Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (Viking) Send Me by Patrick Ryan (Dial).
The award, which comes with a $10,000 cash prize, will be presented at a gala dinner at the Merc on November 6.
