The shortlist for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize has recently been announced. This award was established in 2007 and is presented annually to the best novel written either in English or translated, by an Asian author. The winner receives USD 30,000 and the translator, if there is one, USD 5,000.This year the judging panel selected twelve novels from ninety nominations for the long list and that was reduced to seven for the shortlist. The prize will be awarded to the winner on 15 March 2012. Previous winners include in 2009, Su Tong for The Boat to Redemption and in 2007, Jiang Rong for Wolf Totem.
We are highlighting five novels from the shortlist; all are great reads, with themes, style and structure as diverse as the nationalities of their authors.
The wandering falcon / Jamil Ahmad.
“A progression of stories featuring a character who is the protagonist of the novel but not of any of the stories. In the first, a young couple staggers into a military outpost on Pakistan’s western border, requesting refuge and receiving food and shelter for as long as you want to stay. Soon, a son is born; five years later, the couple’s tribesmen arrive. He shoots her dead; they stone him to death, and the boy is abandoned. His growth from small child to young man ready to take a wife strings the subsequent stories together. Intertribal pecking orders and protocols repeatedly lead to murderous violence, and the protagonist is left behind more than once again.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)
Jamil Ahmad was born in 1933 in Jalandhar. He was an official in the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul during the Soviet invasion in 1979. He now lives in Islamabad, Pakistan.
River of smoke / Amitav Ghosh.
“This is the second volume in the Ibis trilogy. The Ibis, loaded to its gunwales with a cargo of indentured servants, is in the grip of a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal; among the dozens flailing for survival are Neel, the pampered raja who has been convicted of embezzlement; Paulette, the French orphan masquerading as a deck hand; and Deeti, the widowed poppy grower fleeing her homeland with her love, Kalua. The storm also threatens the clipper ship Anahita, groaning with the largest consignment of opium ever to leave India for Canton. And the Redruth, a nursery ship, carries “Fitcher’ Penrose, a horticulturist determined to track down the priceless treasures of China that are hidden in plain sight: plants that have the power to heal, or beautify, or intoxicate. All will converge in Canton’s Fanqui-Town, or Foreign Enclave: a tumultuous world unto itself where civilizations clash and sometime fuse. It is a powder keg awaiting a spark to ignite the Opium Wars.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)
Amitav Ghosh was born in 1956 in Calcutta. He studied at Delhi and Oxford universities. His first novel, The Circle of Reason was published in 1986.
Please look after mom : a novel / Kyung-sook Shin ; translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim.
“Please Look After Mom” is the stunning, deeply moving story of a family’s search for their mother, and of the desires, heartaches, and secrets they discover she harbored within. Told through the piercing voices and urgent perspectives of a daughter, son, husband, and mother, it is at once an authentic picture of contemporary life in Korea and a universal story of family love.” – (adapted from Amazon.co.uk description)
Shin Kyung-Sook was born in South Korea in 1963. She worked in an electronics plant while attending night school. Her first novella was published in 1985 after graduating from the Seoul Institute of the Arts, as a creative writing major.
Dream of Ding village / Lianke Yan.
“Told through the eyes of a young boy who is killed by his family’s neighbours, this novel tells the tragic and shocking story of the selling of blood for much needed money in China’s Henan province The villagers were then infected with the AIDS virus as they were injected with plasma to prevent anaemia. Whole villages were wiped out in this way, with no responsibility taken or reparation made and nothing done to care for those left behind.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)
Yan Lianke was born in 1958 in Henan province, China, where the blood-contamination scandal occurred. He graduated from Henan University in 1985, and in 1991, he graduated from the People’s Liberation Army Art Institute with a degree in Literature. He is a prolific writer and has received many literary awards. He lives in Beijing.
The lake / by Banana Yoshimoto ; translated by Michael Emmerich.
“A young woman moves to Tokyo after the death of her mother, hoping to overcome her grief and start a career as a graphic artist. But she spends her time staring out of the window only to realise that there is a young man across the street staring out of his window too. They eventually embark on a hesitant romance, until she learns that he is the victim of a childhood trauma. Visiting two of his friends who live a monastic life beside a beautiful lake, she begins to piece together clues that reveal that his troubled past includes a bizarre religious cult.” – (adapted from Amazon.co.uk description)
Banana Yoshimoto is the pen name of Mahoko Yoshimoto. She was born in 1964 in Tokyo. She graduated from Hihon University’s Art College where she majored in literature. She has published 12 novels, the first published in 1986, with 8 being translated into English.
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