3 Review(s)

Literary prizes form a fascinating interface between literature and society. Established in 1968, the Booker Prize has rapidly become one of the most prestigious and glamorous literary prizes in the English speaking world. Unlike the Nobel Prize, the Booker focuses on a particular novel rather than on a particular author. It seeks to confer literary recognition on novels that are winners and attend to the novel as a form and medium for new voices, styles and cultures. The Man Booker Prize expresses a postcolonial response and the prominence of India in its brief history is unquestionable. Besides V.S. Naipaul, the Indian Trinidadian, the prize has been awarded to four Indians—Salman Rushdie in 1981, Arundhati Roy in 1997, Kiran Desai in 2006 and most recently in 2008 to Aravind Adiga. In addition, diasporic Indian authors regularly appear on the shortlist that comes out several months before the prize is actually awarded. Thus, Indian writers have successfully created a niche of their own in English, leaving an indelible mark on the global scene. Rich in scholarship, Indian Booker Prize Winners is a challenging collection of essays, which propels the field of Indian English writing forward and focuses on the emerging role of Indian English fiction in shaping the most significant annual international award in English letters. The book examines the key critical debates which provide a concise analysis of the Booker winning novels from India. A variety of subjects and viewpoints inform the close readings of these seminal novels, thereby making the book particularly useful for the teachers and students of Indian English literature.