Works of three Indian writers – Anjali Joseph, Aravind Adiga and Karan Mahajan – are among the five books shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017.
The jury released the shortlist for the literary award at the London School of Economics & Political Science on Wednesday. Besides the three Indian authors, a Sri Lankan writer and an American writer based in India have also made it to the list.
The shortlisted titles are:
- Anjali Joseph: The Living (Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, UK)
- Anuk Arudpragasam: The Story of a Brief Marriage (Granta Books, UK)
- Aravind Adiga: Selection Day (Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, India)
- Karan Mahajan: The Association of Small Bombs (Chatto & Windus, UK)
- Stephen Alter: In the Jungles of the Night (Aleph Book Company, India)
The jury was unanimous in its decision, said committee’s chairperson Ritu Menon. “After deliberating on the many exceptional qualities of the novels selected, and considering the disparities in our backgrounds, the jury was unanimous in its decision on the five shortlisted titles,” Menon said. “All five display a remarkable skill in animating current universal preoccupations in unconventional idioms, and from a distinctively South Asian perspective.”
The winner will be announced at the Dhaka Literary Festival on November 18. The $25,000 (approximately Rs 16 lakh) prize was instituted by Surina Narula and Manhad Narula in 2010.
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