Susan Choi, Jonathan Grimwood and Rupert Thomson have also made the shortlist.
The latter's book, titled Secrecy, includes the memorable line: "I kissed the soft bristles in the hollow of her armpit."
One notable exclusion is Helen Fielding's Mad About The Boy, in which 90s heroine Bridget Jones finds herself man-less again.
The decision to brush over Bridget's amorous encounter with an ex-army officer was not taken lightly, but, "'Oh, oh,' I gasped. 'Did they teach you this in the SAS?'" was not deemed cringeworthy enough to make the cut.
Read the Life & Style online review of the new Bridget Jones' novel here.
Canadian author Nancy Huston took home last year's award for Infrared. Sebastian Faulks, Norman Mailer and Giles Coren are all previous winners.
The aim of the Literary Review prize, which honours the "most egregious passage of sexual description" in a book published this year, is to discourage perfunctory references to sex.
However, pornographic or expressly erotic titles such as EL James's Fifty Shades of Grey are not allowed in the competition.
- INDEPENDENT
