With Indian-origin writer Salman Rushdie missing out, Monica Ali, whose father hails from Bangladesh, is the only writer with Asian roots in the 23-strong Booker Prize list announced here. Ali is in the reckoning for the £50,000 prize with her novel Brick Lane about a Bangladeshi girl brought to London’s East End for an arranged marriage.Monica was singled out as one of the country’s best young authors before she was even published. Her success comes despite a partial backlash over the publicity surrounding her literary debut. The 35-year-old Oxford graduate started writing fiction only as an antidote to the drudgery of domestic chores following the birth of her first child. (PTI)
