Three Indian writers– Amitav Ghosh, Jeet Thayil and Uday Prakash – are among the six authors shortlisted for this year’s $50,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature announced in London on Wednesday.
They are pitted against Pakistani novelists, Mohammed Hanif and Jamil Ahmad and Bangladesh’s Tahmina Anam. The only contender from outside the Indian subcontinent is Jason Grunebaum, an American academic, writer and translator.
Mr. Ghosh has been selected for River of Smoke; Mr. Thayil for his debut novel Narcopolis; and Mr. Prakash for The Walls of Delhi, a collection of short stories in Hindi translated into English by Mr. Grunebaum.
Announcing the list, the noted litterateur K. Satchidanandan, who chaired the jury, said it represented the diversity of South Asian fiction. He pointed out that choosing the six best from a longlist of 16 “outstanding” works was not easy but, in the end, the choice was unanimous.
