Uncommon Writers
If Rana Dasgupta’s Solo wins over three others (The Double Crown by Marie Heese, Galore by Michael Crummey and The Adventures of Vela by Albert Wendt), it’ll be the first Indian winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Best Book Prize in 14 years. Solo is not about an Indian, or set in India, or technically, written by an Indian, but if we can claim Naipaul’s Nobel as a national triumph, then why not the half-Indian-origin Dasgupta? The last Indian to win it was Rohinton Mistry for A Fine Balance in 1996. Mistry was also the first one to win in 1992 with Such A Long Journey. In between, there was Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy (1994) and then, nothing, only books making it to shortlists—Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth last year, Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People in 2008, Vikram Chandra’s Love and Longing in Bombay (1998) and Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet in 2000.
On Newer Wings
We may have beaten them in hockey but when it comes to writing, the most exciting books are from Pakistan. Last year, Mohammed Hanif won the Commonwealth best first book award, and this year the bets are on Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. Rarely does a debut author get the kind of attention Daniyal’s been getting, including being shortlisted for the US National Book Award.
Bolting Stallions
Most literary competitions leave the choice of entries to publishers, little suspecting the heart-burning this can cause. Watch out for serious stable-crossings once it gets around which books the publisher picked as their entries for the C’wealth prizes.