A past-present continuum

It’s time for the Delhi tome. Old and young authors turn the spotlight on unknown, valiant and humdrum aspects of the Capital

The scales are tilting in favour of Delhi. The Capital’s advantages over Mumbai are being enumerated in drawing rooms and magazine columns—wider roads, fewer slums, migrant-friendly, the Metro, etc. So Mumbaikars and their friends have taken to pointing out how theirs is a real city, the kind an author falls in love with and writes about. They back it up with weighty evidence—Maximum City by Suketu Mehta, Love and Longing in Bombay by Vikram Chandra and Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts in the last few years.

Maybe the Mumbaikar does feel more passionately for aamchi Mumbai. By contrast, many who have been in Delhi for decades still feel they are passing by and are there only to earn a livelihood. The real Dilliwala, some would argue, left the city after 1947, taking the city’s soul with him. Among them was Ahmed Ali, who moved to Karachi and wrote a celebrated novel, Twilight in Delhi.

Be that as it may, it is a truism that art follows money—and so does literature. There are signs that a generation that grew up in Delhi, or came here to study or work and stayed on, sees the city, with all its contradictions, as its own. It is finding its voice. Vishwajyoti Ghosh recently released Delhi Calm, a graphic work set during the Emergency (1975-77), and Rana Dasgupta is working on his Delhi non-fiction book, a foretaste of which was offered in a brilliant essay in Granta about a year ago.

Full report here Mint

‘Why should a writer not be happy?'

He's an award-wininng writer and a farmer in Pakistan. During a visit to Delhi, author Daniyal Mueenuddin talks about how he balances farmwork with writing and being a writer in Pakistan.

Pardon my ignorance, but I have not come across a more eloquent farmer; or a man who grows mangoes and wheat but has better skills with the pen; somebody who speaks Urdu with a Punjabi accent one moment and switches to impeccable English the next. A writer in the morning, a farmer by day, a reader by evening; welcome to the world of Daniyal Mueenuddin, the Los Angeles-born, Ivy League-educated man who divides his time between Pakistan, the U.S. and the U.K. Feted the world over — he was recently among the finalists for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for the Best Book, where he lost to Rana Dasgupta — Daniyal is an outsider everywhere: in the U.S. where he can never be a typical American; in Pakistan, despite his impeccable Urdu and colourful Punjabi, he is never “one of us”.

Outsider everywhere
“Yes, that is true. I am half-American so it is more complicated for me. I feel like an outsider everywhere. But I regard Pakistan to be my country. I belong to it. For a certain period I can stay in the U.S. but after a while I hunger for the vibrancy of colours of Lahore,” he says.

Daniyal, with none of the airs of a seasoned writer, is a cheerful man and generates an energetic air. Happy to pose for the camera, he even shares a few candid moments. “You cannot talk with aap-janab on the farm. I learnt it the hard way,” he says, breaking into an expletive to show how to get the work done in the fields.

Full report here Hindu

The Empire's orphan children

As a touchingly emotional Rana Dasgupta rose to receive the Commonwealth Award for the Best Book, he joined a long list of distinguished winners, from Mordecai Richler and Rohinton Mistry to Peter Carey, Vikram Seth and Andrea Levy.

Dasgupta’s Solo, his second book and first novel, is a virtuoso performance, like so many Commonwealth Prize winners. Set in Bulgaria, it explores the painful consequences of the choices made by both nations and individuals. Ulrich is blind, living out his years in a city where all the stories have changed, after “the former villains were cast in bronze and put up in parks”. As his mind wanders through a real and sometimes imaginary past, his life seems like a settling, however unfair, of history’s accounts.

With Peter Carey, J M Coetzee, Thomas Keneally and Chimamanda Adichie on the regional shortlists at one point, it seemed that Solo would be the dark horse of the competition, despite its obvious merits — but the final list of regional winners didn’t include any of the big four, making Dasgupta and Michael Crummey the front-runners for the competition.

Full report here Business Standard

Rana Dasgupta wins Commonwealth Writers’ Prize

Rana Dasgupta and Glenda Guest capped an exciting week of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in Delhi by being named as the winners in the Best Book and Best First Book. Dasgupta won for Solo while Guest won for Siddon Rock.

The prizes were announced in Delhi in an event held at India International Centre.

The judges chose Solo for its innovation, ambition, courage and effortlessly elegant prose. A remarkable novel of two halves, this is a book that takes risks and examines the places where grim reality and fantastical daydreams merge, diverge, and feed off each other. Solo, the judges concluded, is a tour de force, breathtaking in its boldness and narrative panache.

The judges praised Siddon Rock for its rich cast of odd characters and blending of the everyday with fantasy. Behind every door in town lurk secret desires and wild imaginings. The novel, they concluded, deftly delves into the hauntings and disjunctions of settler Australia, and in its fable-like quality captures the laconic mannerisms of the Australian outback.

Both books, the judges noted, showed how magic, fantasy and creativity can burst out in the most apparently mundane of lives and places.

Following a week of intense judging in Delhi, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, organised by the Commonwealth Foundation and supported by the Macquarie Group Foundation, has once again propelled two rising stars into the literary spotlight. This is the first major prize the two writers have won. As highly acclaimed new international authors, Dasgupta and Guest now join some of the biggest names in modern fiction in winning the Prize, including Louis de Bernieres, Vikram Seth and Andrea Levy.

Eight finalists from different regions of the Commonwealth made it to the rigorous final stage in India this week. While their books underwent the close scrutiny of the judges, the writers went head-to-head in a series of public events, readings and visits to schools, colleges and community projects.

In its 24th year, the critically acclaimed Commonwealth Writers’ Prize offers an exceptional opportunity for new writers to demonstrate their talent and for authors already on the literary scene to enhance their reputation. The Best First Book winner claims £5,000 while the writer of the Best Book wins £10,000.

Commenting today, Director of the Commonwealth Foundation and head of the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, Mark Collins, said: “I congratulate the winners for their outstanding books and extraordinary literary talent. The two books chosen by the judges are ones that take us on unexpected journeys and challenge our conventional assumptions. The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize leads the way in spotting new literary icons and promoting literacy as a way to empower people and improve life chances. I am proud that the Commonwealth Foundation is helping to take these works to a global audience to enrich the lives of millions.”

Nicholas Hasluck, Chair of the judging panel said, “The winning books are groundbreaking in taking readers outside their usual comfort zone. Bringing new social and political realities to a wider audience, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize is truly unique in advancing cross-cultural collaboration, dialogue and understanding. It has been an honour and a delight to reward such exceptional and powerful storytelling.” he said, "You want to now about a place, read its literature."

David Clarke, Chairman of the Macquarie Group Foundation, the main sponsor of the Prize, commented,
"These compelling works by Rana Dasgupta and Glenda Guest rightly deserve to be acknowledged internationally. The Macquarie Group Foundation is delighted to support the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in recognising great literature and new literary talent; we congratulate the winners and wish all the authors who have taken part this year every success in the future."

Dasgupta was born in Canterbury in the UK and now lives in New Delhi. His first book, Tokyo Cancelled, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Guest grew up in Western Australia and currently lives in Australia’s Blue Mountains. She teaches at Macquarie and Griffith Gold Coast universities.

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, established in 1987, is organised and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation with the support of the Macquarie Group Foundation. The Commonwealth Foundation is an intergovernmental body working to help civil society organisations promote democracy, development and cultural understanding in Commonwealth countries.

The finalists for Best Book and Best First Book in each of the four Commonwealth Regions: Africa, Caribbean and Canada, South Asia and Europe, and South East Asia and Pacific were:
Africa
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubeni from Nigeria won Best First Book for I Do Not Come to You by Chance and Marié Heese from South Africa won Best Book for The Double Crown.
Caribbean and Canada
Shandi Mitchell from Canada won Best First Book for Under This Unbroken Sky and Michael Crummey from Canada won Best Book for Galore.
South Asia and Europe
Daniyal Mueenuddin from Pakistan won Best First Book for In Other Rooms, Other Wonders and Rana Dasgupta from the UK won Best Book for Solo.
South East Asia and Pacific
Glenda Guest from Australia won Best First Book for Siddon Rock and Albert Wendt from Samoa won Best Book for The Adventures of Vela.

The 2010 pan-Commonwealth panel of judges which decided the overall winners was chaired by Nicholas Hasluck AM (Chair of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize), and comprises the four regional chairpersons: Elinor Sisulu (Africa); Antonia MacDonald-Smythe (Caribbean and Canada); Muneeza Shamsie (South Asia and Europe); and Anne Brewster (South East Asia and Pacific), along with the New Delhi-based local judge Makarand Paranjape, twice regional chair of the Prize.

Related stories

'Risky' book takes writers' prize‎ BBC News
Delhi-based writer wins Commonwealth best book prize‎  Thaindian.com

Rana Dasgupta takes a journey across Delhi

After hogging the limelight for his epic tale Solo set in a conflict-ridden Bulgaria, author Rana Dasgupta has embarked on a journey to chronicle the intense changes being witnessed by a city people love to write about - Delhi.

The British-Indian writer, whose latest work has been adjudged as the best book for the South Asia and Europe region in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, says it is interesting to note the forces that are at play in a fast changing and densely populated capital city.

Two novels old, Dasgupta, who is already working on his third book, has also for the first time broken into the genre of non-fiction.

"My next book is not a novel, its a book of non-fiction, I am taking a kind of journey around Delhi, trying to interview a lot people and trying to know what kinds of forces are in play in the city," he told PTI in an interview.

Born in the UK, the 38-year old author whose first book Tokyo Cancelled was shortlisted for the 2005 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, is based in Delhi since the last nine years, and says his next book would in a way document the lives of people living in the city.

Full report here Outlook

Commonwealth Writers Prize: Commerce or art?

It usually takes the promise of top-shelf whiskey to prompt Delhi-ites to grab their Vuittons, hop into their 7-Series and head towards a cultural event, be it books, or music, or art. But with the regional winners of the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2010 in town, it's too good an opportunity for culture spectators to pass up -- even if there wasn't any Black Label on offer.

From the winners in the prize's four geo- graphical regions, one will be selected for the Best Book and Best New Book, today, Monday 12th April.

In South Asia, Rana Dasgupta (originally from the UK) is up for Best Book for Solo, while Pakistan's Daniyal Mueenuddin's In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, will compete for Best New Book.

Click here for a full list of nominees. In the lead-up to the big night, there's been a jam-packed schedule of talks, readings and panel discussions featuring nominees from as far afield as Samoa and Nigeria.

Full report here CNNGo

Fierce competition for Commonwealth Prize

Competition is fierce among a widely diverse set of literary works for this year's Commonwealth Writers' Prize, but the capital hosting the award ceremony is abuzz with positive literary energy.

As the countdown begins for the annnouncement of the winner, the authors assembled here are gratified by the fact that they are winners from their respective regions, even as the jury goes through a grilling experience of choosing from the world's best literary work.

The eight regional winners of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the panel of judges are in the capital for the final round of the Award to be announced on Monday, and some feel its like a choice between oranges and apples. "To me it is one of the most unusual prizes, because each of the eight authors coming from each of the four regions have already won the prizes in their own regions," says Michael Crummey, the Canadian author whose 'Galore' has been adjudged the best book in the Caribbean and Canada region.

"Amidst this diverse set of books, picking one is like choosing between apples and oranges. For me winning will be an icing on the cake, being here is in itself an achievement," he told PTI.

Agrees Rana Dasgupta, the Delhi-based British Indian novelist, whose second literary work 'Solo', a story that encompasses a century of communist and post-communist regimes in Bulgaria, has won the best book for the South Asia and Europe region.

Dasgupta says the fact that the contending literary works are drawn from such a large part of the world and are so varied makes the prize an important one, but the choice from here is always subjective.

"I have not yet got the time to read the other books that are competing, just read Daniyal's (Mueenuddin) book. But the writers, all of whom are winners in their own right, have gathered here are a fantastic group of people.

"When you have already got to this stage, the choice from here is largely arbitrary, it will depend much on personal tastes," he said.

The Commonwealth is a group of 54 countries, and the finalists for the award are the authors that have been adjudged the best in the four regions comprising it. For the first time in the history of this award, a writer from Samoa is among the finalists, and Mark Collins, the Chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation, says the foundation is working to promote and encourage authors from places that are hitherto lesser-known on the literary scene.

"This prize has gone to lesser-known areas, like Samao, this time. We are also encouraging smaller and lesser
known publishing houses from places that are not yet well known on the literary scene but definitely have a lot of talent," he told PTI.

Full report here PTI

Get a taste of Commonwealth literature

A series of discussions, workshops, symposia and interactions between schoolchildren and award-winning writers will be held in the capital from Wednesday, April 7 ahead of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize ceremony on April 12.

A five-day run-up to the event will see the regional winners of the awards and judges promote quality literature through a series of discussions and events among the GenNext and students in the capital. The winners of the best book and the first book from seven countries across four Commonwealth regions were announced in March.

While Daniyal Mueenuddin from Pakistan won the best first book for In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Rana Dasgupta from Britain won the best book award for Solo in the Europe and South Asian region. They will compete for the final crown with 12 regional winners.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Solo and striking

A conversation with Rana Dasgupta, whose Solo has been shortlisted for this year's Commonwealth Writers' Prize

The clink and tinkle of his piano keys steers my footsteps to the door, past a winding flight of narrow stairs. Author Rana Dasgupta, I have just learnt, is also a pianist. He later says he took lessons on the instrument from the age of seven.

Leaving Bach's “English Suites” half done, Rana promptly sits down to converse on “Solo”, his novel, which has just won the European and South Asian round for the Best Book for this year's Commonwealth Writers' Prize. In fact, we don't talk about the Prize at all, simply because he feels, “There is nothing to talk about it yet.” Rana has won one of the regional rounds of the Prize with Pakistani author Daniyal Mueenuddin. Out of the regional winners picked from different Commonwealth countries, the Prize would go to one lucky author on April 12.

Soft and measured
With the big day a good few weeks away, we steer clear of questions like ‘So how does it feel?' The conversation easily flows towards writing “Solo”, a Harper Collins publication — Rana's first novel and second book. The young author says, “I was glad when I finished writing it. I wanted it to get over.” Well, how do we take that! He explains, a soft, measured smile spreading on his face, “I feel stupid saying this but while writing a book, you have a very reclusive existence. You don't know what to tell people about what you are doing and yet you are living your days in a world made up of your characters. They are real for you.”

Full report here Hindu

Flying Solo

Rana Dasgupta has been named among the regional winners of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010 in the Best Book category for Europe and South Asia for his novel Solo, woven around the life of a 100-year-old Bulgarian.

Solo is 1971-born Dasgupta's second novel after Tokyo Cancelled (2005), which looked at how globalisation is impacting everyday lives across the world.

In Solo (2009) writes  "an epic tale of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries told from the perspective of a one hundred-year old Bulgarian man. Having achieved little in his twentieth-century life, he settles into a long and prophetic daydream of the twenty-first century, where all the ideological experiments of the old century are over, and a collection of startling characters - demons and angels - live a life beyond utopia." (Wikipedia).

The contenders for Best Book included two other novels by Indian authors — For Pepper and Christ: A Novel by Keki Daruwalla and Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals.

Dasgupta, who describes himself as ‘a British writer living in Delhi’, was born and bred in Canterbury, and his first novel was referred to as a modern version of Canterbury Tales.
-=-=-
Interview with the author:
The Canterbury tale-teller Sunday Times 

Author's website
http://www.ranadasgupta.com

Rana, Daniyal win regional Commonwealth Writer's

Indian novelist Rana Dasgupta's Solo and Pakistan-based author Daniyal Mueenuddin's In Other Rooms, Other Wonders were Thursday declared regional winners of the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for 2010 in the European and South Asian categories.

While Solo  was declared the best book, In Other Rooms, ... was selected as the best first book by an author.

Presented by the Commonwealth Foundation with support from the Macquarie Group Foundation, the global winners of the award will be announced in the Capital on April 12.

A five-day literary event in the run-up to the awards ceremony April 12 will begin April 7 with a series of interactive literary sessions. This is the first time that the event is being held in the Indian capital, which will also host the Commonwealth Games in October.

Full report here IBNLive

Related news

PIO writer bags Commonwealth prize Times of India 

Pakistani writer qualifies for final stage of C'wealth Writers' Prize Daily Times 

Commonwealth writers' prize 2010 The News International 

Samoan poet sweeps away Australians Sydney Morning Herald

A new bend in the river

Having moved beyond postcolonialism and a welter of sari-and-mango novels, Indian literature has struck out into darker, messier terrain, Rana Dasgupta writes. Is this the new lore of an agonised nation? 

Novels and nations are linked by an intimate kind of analogy. If nations are the stage on which modern life and feeling unfold, novels are the form in which these things are recounted, understood and turned, finally, into lore. Such is the apparent scale and ambition of modern life that no smaller treatment than the novel will finally match up – not even cinema, which, for all its protean vitality, has never quite displaced the novel from the pinnacle of modern cultural achievement.

This is why emerging nations strive to beget great novels. During the years of America’s rise, for instance, the project of the “great American novel” was conscious and determined. Industry alone would not make the United States great: to grow beyond Europe it needed to match Flaubert and Tolstoy. In 1897, the novelist Frank Norris wrote that American writers should be focused on the task of creating the novel “which is the most thoroughly American in its tone and most aptly interprets the phases of American life”.

The same challenge has continued to define American writing and literary taste ever since. In awarding the 2001 National Book Award to Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, the jurors explained that the novel had proved Franzen “one of the most astute interpreters of the American mind and spirit”.

Full report here National  

Four Indians nominated for Commonwealth Writers' Prize

Noted authors Keki N. Daruwalla and Amit Chaudhuri are among the four Indians nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010. Besides Daruwalla's For Pepper and Christ and Chaudhuri's The Immortals, authors Rana Dasgupta and Chandrahas Chowdhury have also been nominated for their books Solo and Arzee the Dwarf, respectively.

While Solo and Arzee The Dwarf  have been published by HarperCollins-India, For Pepper and Christ has been published by Penguin-Books India and The Immortals has been published by Picador-India.

For Pepper and Christ is a historic tale of sailors voyaging during the time of Vasco Da Gama that weaves itself around the legend of Prestor John and spice trade. The Immortals is the story of two families in Mumbai of the 'eighties bound by music.

Other nominees for best book in Europe and South Asia include The Beijing of Possibilities by Jonathan Tel (Britian), Heartland by Anthony Catwright (Britain) In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (Pakistan) and Another Gulmohar Tree by Aamer Hussain (Pakistan), a communique issued by HarperCollins said on Friday.

Full report here Little About

-=-=-=-=-
The regional winners shortlisted are:
Africa
The shortlisted writers for Africa's Best Book are:

Trespass by Dawn Garisch (South Africa)
The Double Crown by Marié Heese (South Africa)
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
Eyo by Abidemi Sanusi (Nigeria)
Tsamma Season by Rosemund Handler (South Africa)
Refuge by Andrew Brown (South Africa)
Kings of the Water by Mark Behr (South Africa)

The shortlisted writers for Africa's Best First Book are:
I Do Not Come to You by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani (Nigeria
The Shape of Him by Gill Schierhout (South Africa)
The Shadow of a Smile by Kachi Ozumba (Nigeria)
Come Sunday by Isla Morley (South Africa)
Sleepers Wake by Alistair Morgan (South Africa)
Jelly Dog Days by Erica Emdon (South Africa)
Harmattan Rain by Aysha Harunna Attah (Ghana)

Caribbean and Canada
The shortlisted writers or the Caribbean and Canada Best Book are:
The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels (Canada)
February by Lisa Moore (Canada)
Euphoria by Connie Gault (Canada)
Goya's Dog by Damian Tarnopolsky (Canada)
Galore by Michael Crummey (Canada)
The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon (Canada)

The shortlisted writers for the Caribbean and Canada Best First Book are:
Under this Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell (Canada)
Daniel O'Thunder by Ian Weir (Canada)
The Island Quintet: Five Stories by Raymond Ramchartiar (Trinidad)
Diary of Interrupted Days by Dragan Todorovic (Canada)
The Briss by Michael Tregebov (Canada)
Amphibian by Carla Gunn (Canada)

South Asia and Europe
The shortlisted writers for South Asia and Europe Best Book are:
Solo by Rana Dasgupta (Britain)
For Pepper and Christ: A Novel by Keki Daruwalla (India)
The Beijing of Possibilities by Jonathan Tel (Britain)
Heartland by Anthony Catwright (Britain)
Another Gulmohar Tree by Aamer Hussein (Pakistan)
The Immortals by Amit Chaudhuri (India)

The shortlisted writers for South Asia and Europe Best First Book are:
The Hungry Ghosts by Anne Berry (Britain)
Arzee the Dwarf by Chandrahas Choudhury (India)
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (Pakistan)
Among Thieves by Mez Packer (Britain)
An Equal Stillness by Francesca Kay (Britain)
Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Parkes (Britain)

South East Asia and Pacific
The shortlisted writers for South East Asia and Pacific Best Book are:
Summertime by J.M Coetzee (Australia)
A Good Land by Nada Awar Jarrar (Australia)
The Adventures of Vela by Albert Wendt (Samoa)
Singularity by Charlotte Grimshaw (New Zealand)
The People's Train by Thomas Keneally (Australia)
Parrot and Oliver in America by Peter Carey (Australia)

The shortlisted writers for South East Asia and Pacific Best First Book are:
The Ice Age by Kirsten Reed (Australia)
After the fire, a still small voice by Evie Wyld (Australia)
Look Who's Morphing by Tom Cho (Australia)
Document Z by Andrew Croome (Australia)
Come Inside by Glenys Osborne (Australia)
Siddon Rock by Glenda Guest (Australia)

Language rights of Solo sold in 6 countries

After being successfully published in the English language by HarperCollins Worldwide in February 2009, Rana Dasgupta's second novel, Solo will now be published by Gallimard Publisher in France, Karl Blessing in Germany, Janet 45 in Bulgaria, Signatuur in Netherlands, Aschehoug in Norway and by Feltrinelli in Italy.

The book has garnered unprecedented media attention worldwide and has had excellent reviews in major literary spaces. In India, the book is already in its first hardcover reprint.

Solo is a kaleidoscopic novel about the life and daydreams of Ulrich, a one hundred-year-old man from Bulgaria. Before the man lost his sight, he read a story in a magazine. A group of explorers came upon a community of parrots speaking the language of a society that had been wiped out in a recent catastrophe. Astonished by this discovery, they put the parrots in cages and sent them home so that linguists could record what remained of the lost language. But the parrots, already traumatised by the devastation they had recently witnessed, died on the way.

Wondering if, unlike these hapless parrots, he has any wisdom to leave to the world, Ulrich embarks on an epic armchair journey through the twists and turns of his country’s turbulent century – and through his own lifetime of lost love and failed chemistry. Set in a country that has belonged sometimes to Asia and sometimes to Europe, Solo is a book about lost roots, broken traditions and wasted ambitions – and the ways human beings overcome those failures.