Controversially, the prize rules were changed to allow authors from across the English-speaking world, including the US, to be nominated from 2014 onwards.
Previously, eligibility had been restricted to citizens of Commonwealth countries and the Republic of Ireland, writing in English.
Gaby Wood, the chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said there were no plans to change the rules again, despite disquiet about American encroachment.
“They’re not dominating,” she said. “The judges really appreciate being able to scan the whole horizon of what’s being written in English. We’re not prejudiced against people based on their passports.
“We are finding plenty of writers who would not have fit into the old rules who give us a much better span of writing in the English language.”
She added: “It’s the Olympics, it’s not the Commonwealth Games.”
Van der Wouden is the first Dutch writer to be shortlisted. A trilingual author who wrote The Safekeep in English, she also writes an online advice column, Dear David, in which she answers people’s problems in the voice of Sir David Attenborough.