British-Indian writer Neel Mukherjee’s book The Lives of Others shortlisted for Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize,  a prestigious prize given out each year to the best original novel written in English, announced its  longlist on July 23 which included British-Indian writer  Neel Mukherjee’s book  The Lives of Others.  The plot revolves around  a Bengali family in Calcutta – it explores a family that is decaying as the society around it fractures, and one young man who tries to reimagine his place in the world.

This is the first year that the prize has been opened to writers from across the world. Until last year, the award took under consideration books written only by writers from Britain and Commonwealth countries.

The books in this year’s longlist are-  

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour  by Joshua Ferris (Viking),  
The Narrow Road to the Deep North  by Richard Flanagan (Chatto & Windus),  
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves  by Karen Joy Fowler (Serpent’s Tail),
The Blazing World  by Siri Hustvedt (Sceptre),  
J  by Howard Jacobson (Jonathan Cape),  
The Wake  by Paul Kingsnorth (Unbound),  
The Bone Clocks  by David Mitchell (Sceptre),  
The Lives of Others  by Neel Mukherjee (Chatto & Windus),  
Us  by David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton),  
The Dog  by Joseph O’Neill (Fourth Estate),  
Orfeo  by Richard Powers (Atlantic Books),  
How to be Both  by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton),  
History of the Rain  by Niall Williams (Bloomsbury)

The judges of the Prize this year are Sarah Churchwell, Daniel Glaser, Jonathan Bate, Alastair Niven and Erica Wagner headed by Anthony Grayling.

The shortlist will be announced on September 9 while the winner will be announced on October 14.

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