Font Size 
Novel on Bhopal gas tragedy on Booker Prize longlist
Published on Thu, Aug 09, 2007 at 11:31, Updated on Thu, Aug 09, 2007 at 13:11 in Books section
Tags: Man Booker Prize, 2007 , New Delhi
Related Stories
Photogallery
 |  |
New Delhi: Two novels by Indian writers — one loosely based on the Bhopal gas tragedy, and the other about a teenage prodigy who rebels against her immigrant parents’ pressure to excel in their adopted country — are in the race for this year’s Man Booker Prize whose previous Indian winners have been Kiran Desai and Arundhati Roy.
Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People and Nikita Lalwani's Gifted have been included in the Man Booker longlist of 13 novels, most of which are creations of new writers. The longlist was unveiled on Wednesday.
Only six of them will eventually make it to the shortlist, which will be announced next month, and the winner of the £50,000 award would be named at a black-tie event in London on October 16.
Sinha and Lalwani are pitted against two other fellow Asian contenders: Pakistani-born Mohsin Hamid; and Malaysia’s Tan Twan Tang.
Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a portrait of the transformation of a Princeton-educated Pakistani youth with a cushy American job and an American girlfriend into an America-baiting radical with a sneaking sympathy for the 9/11 attackers.
Twan Tang's The Gift Of Rain tells the story of a lonely teenager. This is the first time that so many Asians have been longlisted for what is regarded as the English-speaking world’s most prestigious literary award, won by Kiran Desai last year for her novel The Inheritance of Loss.
Others in contention are six British novels, including Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach, which is about the wedding night anxieties of a couple. Others include Nicola Barker's Darkmans, Edward Docx’s Self Help, Catherine O'Flynn's What Was Lost, AN Wilson's Winnie & Wolf, Peter Ho Davies's The Welsh Girl.
Irish writer Anne Enright's The Gathering, New Zealand writer Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip and Canadian writer Michael Redhill's Consolation make up the longlist this year.
The list is also notable for the absence of big names, except McEwan, and the predominance of first-time novelists. There are four first novels including Nikita Lalwani’s Gifted. Several heavyweights like Doris Lessing and previous winners like JM Coetzee, Graham Swift and Michael Ondatjee didn't find any mention in the longlist.
| Ads by Google |
| Related Ads: | |
Read Comment | Post Comment
I have not read the book,but I know the facts of this matter.
1.A poisonous gas leaked out from Union Carbide
Read Comment
Read more comment »