On Tuesday September 15, 2020 Man Booker shortlist was announced. And it was an Indian delight itself. She is none other than Avni Doshi. She reached the final six along. She was with Diane Cook (US), Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe), Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopian-American), Douglas Stuart (UK) and Brandon Taylor (US). The shortlist was revealed by the 2020 Chair of Judges, Margaret Busby during a virtual press conference.
At present Avni lives in Dubai. Her first novel was ‘Burnt Sugar’. The book was originally published in India under the title ‘Girl in White Cotton’. It was translated into more than 15 languages. “This utterly compelling read examines a complex and unusual mother-daughter relationship with honest, unflinching realism — sometimes emotionally wrenching but also cathartic, written with poignancy and memorability,” the judges said of Doshi’s longlisted entry.
Ruskin Bond was told by his mother to be a clerk
Born in New Jersey, she has a BA in Art History from Barnard College in New York and a Masters in History of Art from University College London. She was awarded the Tibor Jones South Asia Prize in 2013 and a Charles Pick Fellowship in 2014. Her writing has appeared in Granta and The Sunday Times.
Prajwal Parajuly thinks translations can bind the world
The shortlist was selected from 162 submitted books published in the UK or Ireland between October 2019 and September 2020 and these six authors are now up for the 50,000-pound literary prize in November.
Readers of the six chosen books shortlisted will explore the tender story of a mother’s battle to save her daughter in a dystopian city made inhospitable by the climate crisis; witness a woman confronting the realities of life and morality in Zimbabwe as she descends into poverty; travel to India to unpick an unsettling mother-daughter relationship redefined by dementia; uncover the extraordinary tales of the African women who went to war during Italy’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia; find humanity and humor in the harsh realities experienced by a marginalized family in 1980s Glasgow; and question what ‘real life’ is in a fresh take on the campus novel, which offers a nuanced account of racism and homophobia.
