Thursday, July 31, 2008

Eyecatchers-95: "Man Booker Prize for this year"

Two first-time novelists from the subcontinent – Aravind Adiga, an Indian journalist, and Mohammed Hanif, a London-based Pakistani broadcaster – will compete with Salman Rushdie and Amitav Ghosh for this year’s Man Booker Prize, giving it a heavy India-Pakistan flavour.

Adiga’s ‘The White Tiger’ takes a hard look at the underbelly of India’s economic boom. Hanif’s blistering political satire, ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’ is about the mysterious air crash that killed Zia-ul-Haq. They are up against Rushdie’s ‘The Enchantress of Florence’ and Ghosh’s ‘Sea of Poppies’.

The 13-strong longlist, picked from among 112 entries, will be whittled down to six. These finalists’ names will be announced in September. The winner of the £50,000 prize will be declared in October.

Excerpt from “Subcontinent looms over Man Booker longlist” by Hasan Suroor in The Hindu, Madurai, July 31, 2008.

Wikipedia article on “Man Booker Prize”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Booker_Prize

Grateful thanks to Hasan Suroor, The Hindu and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

No comments:

Post a Comment