Rushdie, Jha get Commonwealth regional prizes

The Ground Beneath her Feet bagged the Best Book award for Rushdie8217;s 8220;exciting reanimation8221; of the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Jha8217;s The Blue Bedspread was Best First Book for 8220;zannily portraying the tense roster of personal and domestic horrors in an astonishingly rich scene of modern urban India.8221;

While Rushdie8217;s novel is a story of love lost, found, regained across subcontinents, Jha8217;s has its feet firmly in place in Calcutta and is described by jury chairperson Valentine Cunningham as a 8220;truly magicked kind of realism.8221; Jha, an editor with The Indian Express, said the award was a 8220;happy accident on a creative journey.8221;

The 1,000-pound regional awards are given out yearly and culminate with the 10,000- and 3,000-pound prizes for the overall best book and best first book respectively.

Winning books in the regional category are sent to a pan-Commonwealth panel of judges. The entries for the awards _ instituted in 1987 _ are first assessed by regional panels of judges.

This year, the final judging panel will be chaired by Shashi Deshpande, Indian writer and columnist from Bangalore, and the awards will be given in New Delhi in April.