First-time novelist wins Booker
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Aravind Adiga: Winner of this year's Man Booker Prize. (AFP PHOTO: Leon Neal )
First-time Australian-Indian novelist Aravind Adiga has won the Man Booker Prize with The White Tiger.
The 33-year-old is only the third debut novelist to claim the prestigious literary award in its 40-year history.
He receives a cheque for 50,000 pounds ($125,000) and can expect a significant spike in book sales in the run-up to Christmas. Booker organisers say last year's winner, Anne Enright, has sold around 500,000 copies of The Gathering - largely due to the prize.
"I would like to dedicate this award to the people of New Delhi," Adiga said on accepting the prize, adding that 300 years ago it was the most important city on in the world and could become so again.
Michael Portillo, chairman of the five-member judging panel, praised Adiga's White Tiger for tackling important social and political issues in modern-day India.
"What sets this one apart was its originality," Mr Portillo told reporters in London.
"For many of us this was entirely new territory - the dark side of India.
"It's a book that gains from dealing with very important social issues - the divisions between rich and poor and the impossibilty of the poor escaping from their lot in India.
"It tackles these global issues and social issues with tremendous humour, and it is a book which is extremely readable. It is his first novel, and I imagine [this prize] will come as rather good news to Aravind Adiga."
Adiga was one of six novelists on the shortlist for the prize, which rewards the best novel of the year by a citizen of the Commonwealth of former British colonies or Ireland.
He beat Australian-born Steve Toltz's A Fraction Of The Whole.
Toltz is in London for the awards. Earlier, he said he did not believe he would win.
Also nominated were India's Amitav Ghosh, Britons Linda Grant and Philip Hensher and Ireland's Sebastian Barry.
Adiga was born in Madras on October 23, 1974, and brought up partly in Australia. He holds dual citizenship in both countries.
He studied at Columbia and Oxford universities before working as a journalist. He now lives in Mumbai.
He is the fourth Indian-born author to win the Booker Prize since it was set up in 1969, joining compatriots Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai.
The book is the ninth winning novel to take its inspiration from India or Indian identity.
Some have accused Adiga of painting a negative picture of modern India and its huge underclass.
But Adiga says the novel is meant to be provocative.
"It's not a book that's meant to ingratiate itself with anyone," Adiga told the BBC before the prize was announced.
"The tone of it was meant to be provocative and even a bit nasty at times. It's meant to get people thinking."
- Reuters/AAP
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Comments (10)
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Dropbear:
15 Oct 2008 9:38:13am
"For many of us this was entirely new territory - the dark side of India."
Goodness the judges obviously don't read much do they? The book might be very worthy but the issues of poverty and social division in India is hardly new territory.Agree (1) Alert moderator
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justtech:
15 Oct 2008 9:48:28am
Yes indeed, Vikram Chandra springs to mind. Hardly an unknown
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Jack:
15 Oct 2008 9:46:52am
Only $125,000 in prize money for the most well-known literary prize?
Our PM Rudd gave away $100,000 in his inaugural book prize (and another $100,000 for non-fiction). I guess that's what he means about stimulating the economy.
Writers, don't bother with the Booker, Australia will pay nearly as much and your chances of winning are much much better!Agree (1) Alert moderator
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Janice:
15 Oct 2008 10:06:22am
True, but the exposure of other awards could mean greater sales and therefore more money in the future!
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Jeremy:
15 Oct 2008 10:10:57am
Plus an extra half a million book sales, which is surely worth a lot more than the cash prize, and I'm sure the recognition as a winner is worth something too.
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Neil H:
15 Oct 2008 9:51:44am
This gives hope to the rest of us trying to get our first novels published.
This is a great book, and definitely deserves the Booker Prize, good show. Condolences to Mr Toltz who was featured on this website not so long ago.
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Doh:
15 Oct 2008 11:05:17am
'Aravind Adiga, who spent part of his life in Australia' And exactly what relevance does that have to the man's achievement? The parochialism of the Australian media is absolutely astounding. These attempts to somehow connect Australia with the success of peole like Aravind Adiga is just so childish.
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roger:
15 Oct 2008 11:37:56am
its the same every where..
here in INDIA (mumbai)
our media had a an american astronaut born of indian immigrants who died in the columbia crash wearing ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) uniform & posthumously awarded for being an Dead indian in the crash...
they even digitally removed the american flag & replaced it with an indian tri-colour on her uniform..
disgusting really !!Agree (0) Alert moderator
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thelonenut:
15 Oct 2008 1:01:20pm
I don't understand what Roger is getting at . Fair enough that Aravinda is mentioned as an "Aussie", after all, as someone has pointed out , he has dual citizenship. No reason why us Aussies can't be proud of him, as can Indians.
The astronaut, however, was an US citizen, obviously, but born of Indian immigrants to the US - why cannot India be proud of him as an Indian - perhaps his adopted country failed to mention that he was "Indian"
Parochial poo-bah - can't wait for the day when 'countries" are abolished and we become Citizens of The World - burn all flags NOW, I say !
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Smite:
15 Oct 2008 11:59:38am
There is a lot of good to great modern 'Indian' literature...Rushdie, Mistry, Chandra, Roy, Ghosh etc.
Now apparently, Adiga, and good luck to him.
To those moaning about Australian parochialism, there is hardly an 'oi oi oi' tone to the report and, in fact, he is an Aussie citizen.
It would be a bit odd for an Aussie news report NOT to report his dual citizenship and his growing up here.
Perhaps the likes of Doh, with what he/she might consider an American moniker (but is actually English), is cringing culturally and reacting against any possibility that an Australian upbringing and connection could possibly contribute to a person' achievements.Agree (0) Alert moderator
