The White Tiger by Adiga, 34, is one of four debut works listed. The others are God's Own Country by Ross Raisin, 29; The Bloody White Baron, a biography of mad Baltic baron Ungern-Sternbeg by James Palmer, 27; and Selling Your Father's Bones, part travelogue, part history of the Nez Perce native Americans by Brian Schofield. The other contenders are Adam Foulds with The Broken Word, his first poetry book, and The Secret Life of Words by critic Henry Hitchings, 34.