Swiss postmodernist novelist Christian Kracht and Australia's Gerald Murnane and Alexis Wright are among the favourites for the Nobel literature prize, experts told AFP ahead of the Swedish Academy's much-anticipated announcement on Thursday.

The academy made history last year by choosing South Korea's Han Kang, making her the first Asian woman to win the prize.

But this year several experts predicted the winner would likely be a man -- and European to boot.

"I could see it going to a European man -- that the Academy could do that with a clear conscience because they chose a non-European woman last year," Sveriges Radio culture critic Lina Kalmteg told AFP.

Kracht, Hungary's Laszlo Krasznahorkai and Peter Nadas, and Romania's Mircea Cartarescu are among those whose names are making the rounds.

Kracht, a 58-year-old German-language postmodernist author who writes about pop culture and consumerism, is a favourite in literary circles, Bjorn Wiman, culture editor at Swedish paper of reference Dagens Nyheter, told AFP.

At this year's Gothenburg Book Fair held annually a few weeks before........

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