A debut Pakistani novelist will be among those vying for Asia’s top English-language literary prize. Indian authors dominate the shortlist of authors competing for the $30,000 award. An unprecedented seven authors, including three from India and writers from Pakistan, South Korea, Japan and China, will compete for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize after judges expanded the shortlist from its usual five.
BBC correspondent Razia Iqbal, who heads the judging panel, said the shortlist had been expanded to accommodate the current strength of Asian contemporary fiction and “the imaginative power of the stories now being written about rapidly changing life” in the region. The prize, limited to Asian authors whose books are either written in English or translated into English, was founded in 2007 and shares the same sponsor as the Man Booker Prize, among the world’s top literary awards.
The seven shortlisted books include ‘The Wandering Falcon’, the debut by Islamabad-based author Jamil Ahmad set in the border areas of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan in the decades before the rise of the Taliban. As a member of the Civil Service of Pakistan, Ahmad was posted in Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul before and during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
The three Indian authors competing against Ahmed include Rahul Bhattacharya for ‘The Sly Company of People Who Care’ which chronicles a man’s decision to give up his job and travel to escape his humdrum life. Also nominated is ‘Rebirth’ by Indian doctor and author Jahnavi Barua, about a young woman faced with an uncertain marriage and portraying the bond between a mother and her unborn child.
Amitav Ghosh’s historical epic ‘River of Smoke’ charts the storm-tossed journey of a convict ship from Calcutta into China’s crowded harbours. The shortlist also includes ‘Dream of Ding Village’ by Chinese novelist Yan Lianke, an account of an HIV blood-selling scandal in China that was officially censored upon its Chinese publication.
The two other judges for the competition are Pulitzer-prize finalist and author of ‘The Surrendered’, Chang-rae Lee, and Vikas Swarup, author of ‘Q & A’, which was filmed as the Oscar-winning ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. A total of 90 books were submitted for entry in 2011 and a longlist of 12 was announced in October last year. The winning author is awarded $30,000 and the translator, if any, receives $5,000. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Hong Kong on March 15.
