Novel scheduled to be published in Fall.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest novel, The Lowland, expected to be published in the US this Fall, has been selected to the longlist of potential winners for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.
The award, originally started in 1969, is currently the most highly regarded literary award in given each year in England, to a novel by an author who is a citizen of the Commonwealth, the Republic of Ireland, or Zimbabwe.
With prize money of over $58,000, it’s no wonder the competition to win it is fierce. Other novels selected to the longlist, which includes 13 novels in total, include Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw, The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris, The Spnning Heart by Donal Ryan, and National Book Award winner Colum McCann’s TransAtlantic.
Lahiri is most famous for her 2003 novel The Namesake, which tells the story of a Gujarati family living in the United States as their son copes with the differences between American culture and Indian values. In 2007, it was adapted into a film by Mira Nair, which starred Kal Penn, Irrfan Khan, and Tabu. The film was a financial and critical success.
Lahiri’s debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, in 1999. Her last book was also a collection of short stories released five years ago, Unaccustomed Earth, which achieved the rare distinction of debuting at number one on The New York Times best seller list.
Previous winners of the Man Booker Prize include Life of Pi in 2002, The English Patient in 1992, and Schindler’s Ark in 1982. All three films went on to become incredibly successful films, with the latter two winning the Academy Award for Best Picture and Life of Pi winning four Oscars itself this past March.
Controversial British-Indian author Salman Rushdie has also won the Man Booker Prize, in 1981, for his novel Midnight’s Children.
The Man Booker Prize is awarded by a committee appointed by the Booker Prize Foundation. The next step in the selection process is for the longlist to be brought down to a shortlist, which will be announced on September 10th. The final winner of the prize will then be announced on October 15th.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com