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Jhumpa Lahiri wins 2015 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
The 2015 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature has been awarded to Jhumpa Lahiri for "The Lowland", it was announced Thursday.
Lahiri
won the $50,000 prize, beating strong contenders like Pakistani author
Bilal Tanweer (The Scatter Here is Too Great), Kamila Shamsie (A God in
Every Stone), Sri Lankan author Romesh Gunesekera (Noontide Toll) and
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (The Mirror of Beauty).
The Pulizer Prize
winning Indian-American author was not present to receive the award at
the Jaipur Literature Festival, but communicated her thoughts via Skype.
"I
had published this book with the apprehension that I had not done
justice to the time and events that inspired the story. I am
particularly proud of this prize," she said.
Jury chair Keki N.
Daruwalla said: "This is a superb novel written in restrained prose with
moments of true lyricism. It starts with a sense of loss and trauma due
to the death and then the ongoing presence of a key character."
"The
novel is partly political and partly familial, starting with an
unromanticised account of the Indian Naxalite movement and ending with a
series of individual emotional resolutions," he added.
The
previous winners of the prize, which is in its fifth year, are Pakistani
author H.M. Naqvi (Homeboy), Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka
(Chinaman), Jeet Thayil(Narcopolis) and Cyrus Mistry (Chronicle of a
Corpse Bearer).