The winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2016 is to be announced at the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka on 16th January and as we are aware how many of you love discovering authors from around the world, we have the shortlist here! The six strong list was revealed last week in the welcome address from the panel and they spoke of how difficult the decision was.
The books in competition for the £33,000 prize are as follows.
Hangwoman – R.Meera
Translated by J. Devika: Penguin, India
When twenty-two-year-old Chetna Grddha Mullick is appointed the first woman executioner in India, assistant and successor to her father, her life explodes under the harsh lights of television cameras. When the day of the execution arrives, will she bring herself to take a life?
The Book of Gold Leaves – Mirza Waheed
Viking/Penguin, India
An age-old tale of love, war, temptation, duty and choice, The Book of Gold Leaves is a heartbreaking tale of a what might have been, what could have been, if only.
The Lives of Others – Neel Mukherjee
Vintage/Penguin Random House, UK
Calcutta, 1967. Unnoticed by his family, Supratik has become dangerously involved in extremist political activism. Compelled by an idealistic desire to change his life and the world around him, all he leaves behind before disappearing is a note.
Family Life – Akhil Sharma
Faber & Faber, UK
Darkly comic, Family Life is a story of a boy torn between duty and survival amid the ruins of everything he once knew.
Sleeping on Jupiter – Anuradha Roy
Hachette, India
A stark and unflinching novel by a spellbinding storyteller, about religion, love and violence in the modern world.
She Will Build Him a City – Raj Kamal Jha
Bloomsbury, India
As night falls in Delhi a mother spins tales from her past for her sleeping daughter. Her now grown-up child is a puzzle with a million pieces whom she hopes, through her words and her love, to somehow make whole again.
We wish all the finalists good luck, these all sound like fantastic reads. We’ll bring you the winner in the New Year.
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