London: American short story writer Lydia Davis won the fifth Man Booker International Prize for fiction on Wednesday for a body of work that includes some of the briefest tales ever published.
Davis, a professor of creative writing at the University of Albany, is best known for work that Observer critic William Skidelsky once said "redefines the meaning of brevity".
She is also an accomplished translator whose English versions of Marcel Proust's "Du Cote de Chez Swann" (Swann's Way) and Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" helped earn her a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.
Davis said it was Proust's monumental work and famously long sentences that helped inspire her succinct writing style....
more
05:35 AM, May 23, 2013
UR Ananthamurthy is the only Indian to have made it to the final list of the prestigious prize. ...
08:27 PM, Jan 24, 2013
I love The Tudor Era in British History. There is so much that it offers in terms of plots, narratives and what actually took place. Henry VIII has always been a personality that has been elusive in history. Writers and biographers have tried hard to document everything about him and his six wives, and most of it has been brilliant stuff. To add to this Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel...
12:37 PM, Oct 19, 2012
London: British writer Hilary Mantel won the prestigious Booker literary prize for a second time Tuesday with her blood-soaked Tudor saga 'Bring Up the Bodies,' which the head of the judging panel said had "rewritten the book" on historical fiction. Mantel, who took the 50,000 pound ($82,000) award in 2009 for 'Wolf Hall,' is the first British author, and the first woman, to achieve a Booker double. 'Bring Up the...
03:07 AM, Oct 17, 2012
London: Judges are choosing the winner of Britain's most prestigious literary trophy from a shortlist that includes novels set in the court of King Henry VIII and the opium dens of Mumbai. Hilary Mantel is favored to win the 50,000 pound ($82,000) Booker Prize with "Bring Up the Bodies," a tale of Tudor treachery which follows the fates of the king's right-hand man, Thomas Cromwell, and the monarch's second wife,...
04:56 PM, Oct 16, 2012
New Delhi: The Man Booker Prize winner for 2012 will be announced today, as some are calling it "the book world's equivalent of Oscars night". India's Jeet Thayil is also in the running for his debut book Narcopolis, a prize worth 50,000 pounds. Indian writer Jeet Thayil's first novel 'Narcopolis', described as a compelling tale of Mumbai's hazy world of opium addiction, has made it to the six-author shortlist for...
11:14 AM, Oct 16, 2012
London: Jaipur will play an important role in the Man Booker International Prize 2013 as the judges will announce the list of finalists for the award at the venue of a prestigious literature festival held in the city. The DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, the largest and liveliest literary festival in Asia-Pacific, will host the press conference to announce the judges' list of finalists on January 24, next year. The winner...
05:30 PM, Sep 26, 2012
London: Indian writer Jeet Thayil's first novel 'Narcopolis', described as a compelling tale of Mumbai's hazy world of opium addiction, has made it to the six-author shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2012 announced today. Apart from 53-year-old Kerala-born Thayil, authors on the shortlist are Deborah Levy, Hilary Mantel, Alison Moore, Will Self and Tan Twan Eng. The winner will be announced on October 16 at Londons Guildhall during a...
05:37 PM, Sep 11, 2012
New Delhi: Indian author and poet Jeet Thayil features among 12 authors long-listed for the 2012 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for his book Narcopolis. The Man Booker Prize promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the best book of the year. The prize is the world's most important literary award and has the power to transform the fortunes of authors and publishers. Here's a look at some of Indians...
05:44 PM, Jul 26, 2012
London: Julian Barnes, who won this year's Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and Carol Ann Duffy, Britain's poet laureate, were among the nominees for the 2011 Costa Book Awards announced on Tuesday. English author Barnes is one of four shortlisted for the best novel category for "The Sense of an Ending", the work that won him the coveted Booker award last month at the fourth time of asking. Scottish writer...
01:30 PM, Nov 16, 2011
London: English author and four-time nominee Julian Barnes, who once dismissed the Man Booker Prize for fiction as "posh bingo," is favored to win it on Tuesday with his novel "The Sense of an Ending." The annual award to a writer in English from the Commonwealth, Ireland or Zimbabwe is a major event in the publishing calendar, significantly boosting publicity and sales for shortlisted and winning works. It is also...
08:47 PM, Oct 17, 2011
The only reason I wanted to read 'The Sisters Brothers' was its title. The title is unusual and that is what got me to the book in the first place. Way before the Booker hoopla. To add to it, the book junkie in me also loved the cover " much so lusted after it, so there was no way I was not going to read it, and I am glad...
07:40 PM, Sep 12, 2011
'Pigeon English' is narrated by Harrison Opoku, an eleven-year-old who has recently moved from Ghana to a high rise flat in inner city London. When a boy is stabbed near his home Harri teams up with CSI fan and friend Dean to try and solve the murder. Hes also busy trying to fit in and learn the street smarts necessary to survive while showing a more innocent side, caring for...
06:18 PM, Sep 12, 2011
We are what we remember. But imagine, suddenly, that you were confronted with incontrovertible evidence that what you remember is wrong. That, in fact, you behaved in a very different way than you remember at a key point in your past. Would it change your sense of identity, or alter your understanding of the world? This is the central theme in 'The Sense of an Ending' by Julian Barnes, more...
05:09 PM, Sep 12, 2011
The first novel by the author of 'The Earl of Petticoat Lane', an engaging family history set in Londons East End, was always going to be good. But 'Snowdrops' is astonishingly good. Think Isaac Bashevis Singer crossed with Dashiell Hammett and just a hint of Dostoievsky, all translated into the idiom of a modern Moscow marinated in sex and corruption. It is atmospheric; it is painful; but it is also,...
01:39 PM, Sep 12, 2011
London: English author Julian Barnes was one of six authors shortlisted for the coveted Man Booker Prize for Fiction on Tuesday, and he is the bookmakers' favourite to win the award when it is announced in October. Barnes, nominated for 'The Sense of an Ending', appears on the shortlist for the fourth time following 'Flaubert's Parrot' (1984), 'England, England' (1998) and 'Arthur and George' (2005), but has never won. His...
06:08 PM, Sep 06, 2011
New Delhi: The longlist for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction - the 'Man Booker Dozen' - is announced. The 13 books on the list include: one former Man Booker Prize winner; two previously shortlisted writers and one longlisted author; four first time novelists and three Canadian writers. The list also includes three new publishers to the prize - Oneworld, Sandstone Press and Seren Books. The titles were chosen...
09:17 PM, Jul 26, 2011
Sydney: John le Carre was nominated for the Man Booker prize recognizing an author's lifetime contribution to fiction, but the British writer immediately asked to be taken off the shortlist because he said he doesn't compete for literary awards. Le Carre, the author of more than 20 books that helped define the spy genre in fiction and film, including "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and "The Constant...
04:23 PM, Mar 30, 2011
The Australian city of Sydney will play an important role in the fourth Man Booker International Prize. The University of Sydney will host the press conference to announce the Judges' list of finalists on 30 March, and the winner of the 60,000 prize will be announced at the Sydney Writers' Festival on 18 May. The three judges for the Man Booker International Prize 2011 - the writer, academic and rare-book...
03:49 PM, Mar 16, 2011
