Skip to main content

Indian Author, Aravind Adiga Wins 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for His Novel, The White Tiger

Aravind Adiga holding his Booker-prize-winner novel The White TigerToday brings a great news to us, Indians. Mr Aravind Adiga, 33-year-old, former Wall Street Journal and Time writer hailing from Chennai, bagged this year’s Man Booker Prize for his debut novel The White Tiger. The author was awarded the prize money of 50,000 pound sterling at the award ceremony held in London’s Guildhall.

Mr Adiga, who currently stays in Mumbai, is the third debut novelist to win the most prestigious Booker Prize, which is awarded yearly to the best of fiction works from Commonwealth countries. Other debutantes to win the award include Arundhati Roy in 1997 for God of Small Things and DBC Pierre in 2003 for Vernon God Little.

Mr Adiga is in line with other Indo-Anglican writers adorned by the Booker, such as Sir Salman Rushdie, Sir V S Naipaul (who has Indian roots), Ms Arundhati Roy (who happens to hail from my very own state, Kerala), and Ms Kiran Desai.

Mr Adiga was born and brought up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He emigrated to Sydney, Australia and later studied English literature from Columbia University, New York, and later at Oxford. He started his career as a writer with the Financial Times, Money, and later the Wall Street Journal. When his review of a Booker-prize-winning novel, Oscar and Lucinda became popular, Time magazine hired him, and he worked there for 3 years.

The White Tiger, Booker-prize-winnerThe White Tiger, Booker-prize-winnerThe White Tiger deals with the son of a rickshaw puller, Balram Halwai, who rises to the fame and money of entrepreneurship in the heart of India. The Man Booker Prize website gives this review:
The White Tiger is a tale of two Indias. Balram’s journey from darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success is utterly amoral, brilliantly irreverent, deeply endearing and altogether unforgettable.
Other titles short listed for the Booker Prize include The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry, Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (another Indian writer), The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant, The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher, and A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Tolz (another debutante). Each of these short-listed writers, including Aravind Adiga, win a sum of 2500 pounds and a designer-bound volume of their books.

Copyright © Lenin Nair 2008

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Power of Short Sentences

Post dedicated to Thomas Hardy (see History Today below). There are monster sentences like the one you encounter as the first paragraph of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens . One of my friends, whom I am getting equipped for his IELTS ( what is this? ), told me that the examination recommends long sentences. In writing classes also, I guess it’s longer sentences most tutors promote. But indubitably shorter sentences are more powerful . We will see why. Take a long sentence for instance: Tom Cruise, one of the finest actors in the whole world, is perhaps the most powerful celebrity to exist ever according to Time Magazine, but many people still dispute this fact and point out that there are more powerful and popular actors than Cruise, though they were unsuccessful in providing the total number of fans, who liked the films of those actors. This is a long sentence and it is very confusing . Though it has a logical construction and conveys a meaning, it falters in many occasions and seems

Creative Writing: Crafting Characters With Emotional Appeal in Mind

When you read the greatest fiction works ever, have you ever asked what was so compelling about them that you not only kept reading it, but you ended up reading all other major works of the writer? It may well be because the writer touched your emotional quotient quite a bit. Every reader has a unique taste . Some like to read suspense thrillers , some tender love stories, and some others dark horror and bloodshed stories . That’s why there are all sorts of genres out there. When a writer gives you what exactly you want, you will keep reading. Here we come to the emotional appeal. Character Imperfection Perfect characters may not always be the upshot of a writer’s deliberation. It may well be due to ignorance . Usually the upcoming writers take it for granted that if they create perfect characters, they will be able to garner a bigger audience . It is not true. You have to ask yourself what a character would do in a particular situation. Perfect characters—perfect gunmen, perfect

Another Tiny List of Confusables

Earlier, you may remember we published a list of confusable words . Here we are again, with such a list of words. Abjure/Adjure: Abjure means "to formally renounce (give up) something" such as a position. Adjure on the other hand means 'to appeal to' or 'solemnly order'. The governor decided to abjure his position due to political pressure. Normally, adjuring to the subordinates doesn't give many results. Amount/Number: Use amount when you have uncountable subject. Use number when it is countable. The amount of love one gets depends on the number of friends one has. Appraise/Apprise: Appraise is the word applied to quantitative evaluation of something. Apprise means 'communicate' or 'inform'. Appraising diamonds is the work of an expert. Joe apprised me of the schedule of events. Attorney/Lawyer/Solicitor: These terms are highly misinterpreted and confused by many people. Let me clarify. In the US, an attorney is any member