London: Indian-origin British author Sunjeev Sahota is among six writers shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction for 2015, it was announced here at a press conference on Tuesday. The six names were announced by chair of judges Michael Wood.
The Year of the Runaways by Derbyshire-born Sahota (34) talks about 13 young men, living in a house in Sheffield in the UK, each in flight from India and in desperate search of a new life.
Sweeping between India and England, and between childhood and the present day, the novel is a story of an unlikely family thrown together by circumstances.
Sahota’s debut novel, Ours are the Streets, was called “nothing short of extraordinary”. He currently lives in Sheffield. The judges remarked on the variety of writing styles, cultural heritage and literary backgrounds of the writers on the shortlist, including new alongside established authors.
This is the second year that the prize, first awarded in 1969, has been open to writers of any nationality, writing originally in English and published in the UK. Previously, the prize was open only to authors from the UK and the Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe.
Other nominees are Marlon James (Jamaica) for A Brief History of Seven Killings, Tom McCarthy (UK) for Satin Island, Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria) for The Fishermen, Anne Tyler (US) for Spool of Blue Thread, and Hanya Yanagihara (US) for A Little Life.
