34-Year-old Aravind Adiga Among Bookers Prize Front Runners
Agencies
Sep 14: Indian writers Amitav Ghosh and Aravind Adiga made it to the shortlist for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction on Tuesday, but 'Best of the Booker' winner Salman Rushdie didn't make the cut.
Ghosh's "Sea of Poppies" and Adiga's "The White Tiger" are among the six books still in contention for one of the world's most prestigious literary awards.
Ghosh's "Sea of Poppies" is set against the backdrop of the opium trade in eastern India and tells of sailors, convicts and indentured labourers on board the Ibis, a ship headed to Mauritius in 1838.
At 34, first-time novelist Adiga is also the youngest author on the shortlist this year.
"The White Tiger" deals with protagonist Balram's journey from darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success.
Aravind Adiga was born in Chennai in 1974. However, he hails from a family located in the coastal region. He studied in Canara School for two years before completing his SSLC in the year 1990 from St Aloysius College in the city.
The Booker rewards the best novel each year by a writer from Britain, Ireland or a Commonwealth country.
The other authors on the shortlist are Sebastian Barry (The Secret Scripture), Linda Grant (The Clothes on Their Backs), Philip Hensher (The Northern Clemency) and Steve Toltz (A Fraction of the Whole).
"These novels are intensely readable, each of them an extraordinary example of imagination and narrative," Michael Portillo, chair of the Booker jury, said in London on Tuesday.
The winner of the 50,000 pound (nearly 4 million rupees) Booker prize will be announced on Oct. 14
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