Man Booker Prize: Amitav Ghosh among top 10 finalists
Amitav Ghosh today emerged as the only Indian author among 10 finalists for this year's Man Booker International Prize for his contribution to the English language writing. Ghosh had narrowly missed out on the Booker Prize back in 2008 when he was shortlisted for his work 'Sea of Poppies'.
Noted writer Amitav Ghosh is the sole Indian on a 10-writer final list for the sixth Man Booker International Prize, worth £60,000, which recognises one writer for his or her achievement in fiction.
Organisers of the award said on Tuesday that the writers for this year's prize hailed from ten countries with six new nationalities included on the list for the first time. They are from Libya, Mozambique, Guadeloupe, Hungary, South Africa and Congo.
None of the writers has appeared on a previous Man Booker International Prize list of finalists, they said.
The finalists' list was announced by the chair of judges, Marina Warner, at a press conference at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
The ten authors on the list are: Cesar Aira (Argentina), Hoda Barakat (Lebanon), Maryse Conde (Guadeloupe), Mia Couto (Mozambique), Amitav Ghosh (India), Fanny Howe (United States of America), Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya), Laszlo Krasznahorkai (Hungary), Alain Mabanckou (Republic of Congo), Marlene van Niekerk (South Africa).
Besides Warner, the judging panel for the Man Booker International Prize 2015 consists of novelist Nadeem Aslam; novelist, critic and Professor of World Literature in English at Oxford University, Elleke Boehmer; Editorial Director of the New York Review Classics series, Edwin Frank, and Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at SOAS, University of London, Wen-chin Ouyang.
The Man Booker International Prize is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language.
The winner is chosen solely at the discretion of the judging panel; there are no submissions from publishers. Lydia David won the prize in 2013, Philip Roth in 2011, Alice Munro in 2009, Chinua Achebe in 2007 and Ismail Kadare won the inaugural prize in 2005.
The prize winner will be announced at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on 19 May.
