Speculation always mounts on the eve of literary prizes, as interested people try to reduce the shortlist to a single winner. It was no different for the Crossword Book Award this year, with the announcements of the actual winners finally settling the guesswork.
Both the fiction and non-fiction fields this time had globally known names – think Amit Chaudhuri (Odysseus Abroad) and Rana Dasgupta (Capital), for instance. Along with them were debutant novelists like Shovon Chowdhury (The Competent Authority), Mahesh Rao (The Smoke is Rising) and Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey).
Over the years, the juries for this award have seldom been overawed by the reputations carried into the shortlists. This time, too, neither Chaudhuri nor Dasgupta won. The fiction winner, Anees Salim’s The Blind Lady’s Descendants, was among the top choices of each of the three jury members, as revealed by one of them, Jai Arjun Singh (the other two were novelists Anjum Hasan and J. Devika.)
This year’s prizes have been a complex affair, with the period under consideration being changed from the calendar year, as used to be the case, to an 18-month period. Also, unlike earlier, only a fixed number of submissions was allowed for each publishing imprint. The fiction judges had to call in a number of books that had not been submitted, including the eventual winner.
Here, then, is what you need to know about this year’s winners:
Fiction: The Blind Lady’s Descendant, Anees Salim
A bungalow that brings bad luck. A family torn apart. An Indian family with its set of secrets. You could call it dysfunctionality fiction at its best, but this novel will not disappoint you when it comes to family dynamics. Salim’s greatest achievement here – this is his fourth novel to be published in a 12-month period – is that he reclaims the great middle ground between obscure literary fiction and easy-flow popular fiction which the best novels in Indian languages used to operate in throughout the twentieth century.
Non-fiction: This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War, Samanth Subramanian
I thought I would not enjoy this one when I was ten pages into it, but I was wrong. Sri Lanka’s civil war is a well-documented historical event, and it is not easy to write a book that goes beyond the here and now – dramatic as that might be – to tell stories that will be read and re-read afterwards. In a sense, all non-fiction rooted in actual events have to overcome this barrier. Subramanian does it by telling the tales that matter, while enabling the reader to understand the complexities of the politics without getting confused by it.
Translation: Children, Women, Men, Sundara Ramaswamy, translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom
The last of Sundara Ramaswamy’s three novels, this one brings to the fore a Kerala of pre-Independence India and what it stood for. The conflicts on both social and political levels are depicted senstively, with a classic Indian family and its unusual chaarcters foregrounded by the narrative. Lakshmi Holmstrom’s masterly translation – she is a legend when it comes to reading Tamil literature in English – only underlines the modernity the writer’s sensibilities. That a “family saga” set in the 1940s can win a contemporary literary prize is nothing but good news.
Children: Timmi in Tangles, Shals Mahajan
It’s not difficult to see why Shals Mahajan’s stories about Timmi, her loving but troublesome family, and her imaginary giant friend struck a chord with the jury. Very few Indian writers for children have succeeded in capturing a child’s point of view – funny, sad, stressed – quite so effectively. This book is engaging for readers of all ages, which is where its exceptional quality lies.
Popular Choice: Bankerupt, Ravi Subramanian
Readers obviously love this complex novel with a number of sub-plots. From a financial hoax to a cryptic clue – the novel girds the globe, from the USA through India to Australia. A real pageturner on globalised crime, and one that makes demands of your brains, too.
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Both the fiction and non-fiction fields this time had globally known names – think Amit Chaudhuri (Odysseus Abroad) and Rana Dasgupta (Capital), for instance. Along with them were debutant novelists like Shovon Chowdhury (The Competent Authority), Mahesh Rao (The Smoke is Rising) and Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey).
Over the years, the juries for this award have seldom been overawed by the reputations carried into the shortlists. This time, too, neither Chaudhuri nor Dasgupta won. The fiction winner, Anees Salim’s The Blind Lady’s Descendants, was among the top choices of each of the three jury members, as revealed by one of them, Jai Arjun Singh (the other two were novelists Anjum Hasan and J. Devika.)
This year’s prizes have been a complex affair, with the period under consideration being changed from the calendar year, as used to be the case, to an 18-month period. Also, unlike earlier, only a fixed number of submissions was allowed for each publishing imprint. The fiction judges had to call in a number of books that had not been submitted, including the eventual winner.
Here, then, is what you need to know about this year’s winners:
Fiction: The Blind Lady’s Descendant, Anees Salim
A bungalow that brings bad luck. A family torn apart. An Indian family with its set of secrets. You could call it dysfunctionality fiction at its best, but this novel will not disappoint you when it comes to family dynamics. Salim’s greatest achievement here – this is his fourth novel to be published in a 12-month period – is that he reclaims the great middle ground between obscure literary fiction and easy-flow popular fiction which the best novels in Indian languages used to operate in throughout the twentieth century.
Non-fiction: This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War, Samanth Subramanian
I thought I would not enjoy this one when I was ten pages into it, but I was wrong. Sri Lanka’s civil war is a well-documented historical event, and it is not easy to write a book that goes beyond the here and now – dramatic as that might be – to tell stories that will be read and re-read afterwards. In a sense, all non-fiction rooted in actual events have to overcome this barrier. Subramanian does it by telling the tales that matter, while enabling the reader to understand the complexities of the politics without getting confused by it.
Translation: Children, Women, Men, Sundara Ramaswamy, translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom
The last of Sundara Ramaswamy’s three novels, this one brings to the fore a Kerala of pre-Independence India and what it stood for. The conflicts on both social and political levels are depicted senstively, with a classic Indian family and its unusual chaarcters foregrounded by the narrative. Lakshmi Holmstrom’s masterly translation – she is a legend when it comes to reading Tamil literature in English – only underlines the modernity the writer’s sensibilities. That a “family saga” set in the 1940s can win a contemporary literary prize is nothing but good news.
Children: Timmi in Tangles, Shals Mahajan
It’s not difficult to see why Shals Mahajan’s stories about Timmi, her loving but troublesome family, and her imaginary giant friend struck a chord with the jury. Very few Indian writers for children have succeeded in capturing a child’s point of view – funny, sad, stressed – quite so effectively. This book is engaging for readers of all ages, which is where its exceptional quality lies.
Popular Choice: Bankerupt, Ravi Subramanian
Readers obviously love this complex novel with a number of sub-plots. From a financial hoax to a cryptic clue – the novel girds the globe, from the USA through India to Australia. A real pageturner on globalised crime, and one that makes demands of your brains, too.