Prize Acts

Upamanyu Chatterjee’s dark and austere novel Way to Go ,Sri Lankan writer Ru Freeman’s heartbreaking story of two women in A Disobedient Girl ,and HM Naqvi’s Home Boy,a tale of immigration,love and loss,are among the 14 names in the longlist for the first DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. The $50,000 award (Rs 23 lakh approx),instituted by infrastructure major DSC,which also organises the Jaipur Literature Festival,answers what Lord Meghnad Desai calls,“a need to recognise the South Asian mode of thinking.”

The five-member jury,comprising eminent figures from across the world — from Labour politician and former chairman of Faber and Faber,Matthew Evans,and Pakistani writer Moni Mohsin to novelist Amitava Kumar— went through more than 55 books before finalising 16 names. Tamil poet and novelist Rokkaiah Salma’s well-acclaimed debut novel Irandaam Jaamattin Kadai ,translated by Laksmi Holmstrom as The Hour Past Midnight,and Sankar’s The Middleman,translated by Arunava Sinha from the Bengali Jana Aranya is among the contenders,marking the organiser’s stress on rewarding English translations of regional works.

Manhad Narula,director of DSC and the brain behind the prize,strongly recommends Salma’s novel,saying he is yet to get over the travails of Rabia,Zohra and Amina,the female protagonists of the book. “I am hopeful,” says Sankar,adding that the English translation of the book had a “modest beginning and has a long way to go”. “Chandrahas Choudhury’s Arzee the Dwarf ,Amit Chaudhuri’s The Immortals ,Musharraf Ali Farooqui’s The Story of a Widow ,Anjum Hasan’s Neti Neti ,Manju Kapur’s The Immigrant ,Ali Sethi’s The Wish Maker ,Jaspreet Singh’s Chef ,Aatish Taseer’s The

Temple Goers and Tania James’ first novel Atlas of Unknowns are the other names on the list,” says literary critic Nilanjana S Roy,who is also chairperson of the jury.