Anuradha Roy wins DSC Prize for South Asian literature

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Now in its sixth edition, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature awards the best work in South Asian fiction writing. This year, the jury panel comprised journalist and writer Mark Tully, who was Chair of the jury; Dennis Walder, Emeritus Professor of Literature at Open University, UK; Karen Allman, a bookseller and literary coordinator from Seattle, US; Neloufer de Mel, Senior Professor of English at University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Syed Manzoorul Islam, celebrated Bangladeshi writer, translator and academic.

“We chose Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy because of its elegance, flair and readability. It raises many issues succinctly and with commendable economy of words. The South Asian setting is described faithfully and evocatively. Among the issues raised are the power of memory and myth, religious hypocrisy, sexuality, abuse and other forms of violence. The novel contains powerful portraits of both major and minor characters. We believe this book will be a source of inspiration to other writers,” said Tully at the ceremony.

In her third novel after An Atlas of Impossible Longing and The Folded Earth, Roy writes an immersive, atmospheric tale of three friends — Vidya, Gauri and Latika — in their 60s now, who embark on a five-day trip to Jarmuli, a medieval temple town overlooking the Bay of Bengal.