In line to achieve the rare double of winning the Man Booker Prize too.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: JhumpaLahiri’s novel The Lowland has been long-listed for the National Book Award.
The National Book Award was started in 1936 and contains four categories: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young people’s literature. Lahiri’s novel is up for the top prize in the fiction category.
The short-list, which will contain the five finalists in each of the four National Book Award categories, will be announced on October 16, a day after the Man Booker Prize is announced, in London. The Lowlandis on the short-list for the Man Booker Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards.
The Lowland tells the story of two very close brothers (both in age and relationship), Subhash and Udayan, in 1960s India. Despite their closeness, they are vastly different in terms of personality and life goals. They split up when Subhash decides to emigrate to America and Udayan stays behind in India. However, an incident in Udayan’s past forced Subhash to come back to India and confront the past of the brother he only thought he knew.
JhumpaLahiri was born in London in 1967 to parents from West Bengal. She grew up, however, in Rhoda Island. She received her BA in English literature from Barnard College, an all-women’s institution in New York City – in 1989. She then went on to receive her MA in English, MFA in creative writing, MA in comparative literature, and Ph.D. in Renaissance studies, all from Boston University.
Lahiri’s first literary work – Interpreter of Maladies, a short-story collection — was a success in its own right and a winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The author’s debut novel The Namesake, that came out in 2003, follows themes present in nearly all of Lahiri’s work: Indian-American families, cultural disparity between east and west, and the clash of tradition and modernity.
Lahiri’s second collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, in 2008, had the rare distinction of debuting at number one on The New York Times best seller list.
The full National Book Award 2013 long-list can be seen here.
TO contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com