Hari Kunzru: Search for self
Half-British author Hari Kunzru's work reflects his journey to explore his roots.
It was the year 2002. In the world of books, a young man named Hari Kunzru was creating waves for receiving one of the largest advances in publishing history for a first book, The Impressionist - around £1.25 million.
Sceptics saw it as a mere publicity stunt, but the huge commmercial and critical success of Kunzru's first book proved all his detractors wrong. It was shortlisted for the 2002 Whitbread First Book award, and went on to win the 2002 Betty Trask award and the 2003 Somerset Maugham award. It was not just the money - Kunzru's writing too was making waves.
The Impressoinist, a black comedy about race and identity, goes from India to England to Paris to Africa following one character, Pran, who assumes different identities and never quite fits into any of them. The subject and experience of the protagonist Pran parallels Kunzru's own life, only the polarities are reversed.
Unlike Pran, Kunzru was born to a Kashmiri Hindu father and English mother and has spent most of his life in the UK. It is hardly surprising therefore that The Impressionist delves into the questions of identity and belonging. Perhaps for Kunzru this was backward journey exploring his own roots. But what emerges at the end is that 'home', is a constructed thing.
For Kunzru home is built by relationships with people not with place. He surely has stuck that cord of belonging and found his place amongst the Granta list of top ten writers in the UK. His second book
Transmission
was published last year. Kunzru's latest work is a collection of short stories titled Noise released in May. Continuing in the same vein as
Transmission
the stories focus on technology, the dot-com phenomenon and the wired generation - subjects which Kunzru knows from the inside out.
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| Hari Kunzru as a child |
Being a travel writer Kunzru has always explored new destinations and places writing for
The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph
and the
Time Out
magazine. In 1999 he was named The Observer Young Travel Writer of the Year. From 1999-2004 he was also music editor of
Wallpaper
and since 1995 he has been a contributing editor to
Mute
, the culture and technology magazine.
Most of his writing is about people who are transported from a familiar to strange world. Much like his travelogues, his books too are journeys of discovery about "how people are shaped by their environments and their contexts, and what happens when that context changes". This says Kunzru is what "writing is all about".
Prizes and awards
2002 Betty Trask Prize The Impressionist
2002 Guardian First Book Award (shortlist) The Impressionist
2002 Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction) (shortlist) The Impressionist
2002 Pendleton May/Guildford Arts Book Prize (First Novel Award) TheImpressionist
2002 Whitbread First Novel Award (shortlist) The Impressionist
2003 Somerset Maugham Award The Impressionist
2003 British Book Awards Author of the Year (shortlist) The Impressionist
2003 EMMA (BT Ethnic and Multicultural Media Award) for Best Book/Novel (shortlist) The Impressionist
2003 WH Smith Literary Award (shortlist) The Impressionist
2003 William Saroyan Award (shortlist) The Impressionist
2005 British Book Awards Decibel Writer of the Year