Aravind Adiga wins Booker for debut novel

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LONDON, Oct 15: He is just 33, but Indian debut novelist Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger roared like a lion when he was named the winner of UK’s prestigious £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction last night.Adiga was the only debut writer on this year’s Man Booker shortlist of six. Only two other debut novelists achieved this in the past — DBC Pierre in 2003 for his novel Vernon God Little and Arundhati Roy in 1997 for The God of Small Things.The writer, who has wanted to be a novelist since he was a boy, was born in Madras and now lives in Mumbai. The White Tiger is a “compelling, angry and darkly humorous” novel about a man’s journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. It was described by one critic as an “unadorned portrait” of India seen “from the bottom of the heap”.Accepting the award, Adiga dedicated it to the “people ofDelhi”. He said, “Three hundred years ago, Delhi was the most important city. All that is good and bad comes to Delhi.”Adiga is the fourth India-born author to win the prize, joining compatriots Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai who won the prize in 1981, 1997 and 2006 respectively. A fifth winner, V S Naipaul is of Indian ancestry. In addition, The White Tiger is the ninth winning novel to take its inspiration from India or Indian identity.The win is also a first for publisher Atlantic; although they had books shortlisted for the prize in 2003 with The Good Doctor by Damon Gaigut and in 2004 with Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor.Announcing the winner at the awards dinner at the Guildhall here, Michael Portillo, Chair of the judges, said, “The judges found the decision difficult because the shortlist contained such strong candidates. In the end, The White Tiger prevailed because the judges felt that it shocked and entertained in equal measure. UNI