Japanese author Kenzaburo Oe, who was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1994, is the star name among the 10 authors long-listed for this year’s Man Asian literary prize.

His novel “The Changeling,’’ in which an ageing writer strives to understand what drove his brother-in-law to suicide, joins work by writers from China, India and the Philippines in contention for the award.

Novelists Monica Ali and Hsu-Ming Teo, and academic and critic Homi K Bhabha, are the judges of the $30,000 prize, set up in 2007 to celebrate the best novel by an Asian writer, written in English or translated, published in the previous year.

Also chosen for the shortlist are:
* Manu Joseph’s debut novel “Serious Men,’’ an examination of caste in contemporary India which won The Hindu best fiction award in November
* “Three Sisters’’ by Bi Feiyua, contemporary novel about three Chinese women struggling to change their lives
* “Hotel Iris’’ by Yoko Ogawa, the story of a 17-year-old’s fascination for a middle-aged man
* “Below the Crying Mountain’’ by Criselda Yabes, a novel about the Moro rebellion in Sulu in the Philippines.

The remaining candidates include the tale of an octagenarian who goes missing from his deathbed, ‘’Way to Go’’ by Upamanyu Chatterjee; as well as “The Thing About Thugs’’ by Tabish Khair, ‘’Tiger Hills’’ by Sarita Mandanna; ‘’Dahanu Road’’ by Anosh Irani and Monkey-man by Usha KR.

A shortlist will be published in February, with the winner announced the following month.