Say Hello to the latest winner of the Man Booker prize, Aravind Adiga.

The 33 year old Indian’s debut novel, “The White Tiger” beat out other contenders like Irishman Sebastian Barry (The Secret Scripture), fellow Indian Amitav Ghosh (Sea of Poppies), Aussie Steve Toltz (A Fraction of the Whole), and Britishers Linda Grant (The Clothes on Their Backs) and Philip Hensher (The Northern Clemency), to land the Man Booker Prize for Fiction for 2008. The prize is worth £50,000. Born in Chennai, Adiga moved to Australia at the age of 15 and is now living in Mumbai. He dedicated the prize to the people of Delhi.

The novel paints a stark, dark picture of India that many know about but which is rarely discussed. As was to be expected, most Indians were divided in their opinions on this victory, with some feeling this was yet another attempt to pander to the fascination the Western world has with “poor” India, still the land of elephants and snake charmers to many !

For those who are interested in “records”;

  • He is the 5th author of Indian ethnicity to win the prize, after V S Naipaul (1971), Salman Rushdie (1981), Arundhati Roy (1997) and Kiran Desai (2006). It is a moot point whether Naipaul would like to be part of this list, though !! :)
  • Adiga is the 2nd youngest winner ever. The youngest was Ben Okri, who was 32 when he won in 1991. Incidentally, Kiran Desai is the youngest ever woman author to win the prize.
  • He is also the 3rd author to win the Booker with a debut novel, the others being Arundhati Roy in 1997 and DBC Pierre in 2003.

I’ve yet to the read this book, which came out earlier this year. Personally, I’ve also felt the Booker prize is somewhat like the Oscars or Grammys, where the favourite often trips, and which usually throws up a relatively unknown winner.

Delicious irony ? You bet !!

 

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