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Monica Ali is lone Asian writer shortlisted for booker prize
Monica Ali is lone Asian writer shortlisted for booker prize
London, Sept 17: Promising writer Monica Ali is
the Lone Asian novelist left in the shortlist for the 2003 man
booker prize, Britain's most prestigious annual fiction
award worth 50,000 pounds.
A new generation of women authors dominated the
shortlist of six. The list includes four women, three
debut novelists and only one writer who could be described
as a household name - Margaret Atwood.
Atwood's Onyx and Crake was the early favourite, but
she was immediately challenged by Monica Ali, the
Bangladeshi-born Londoner whose 'Brick Lane' was hailed by
the judges as "an extraordinary first novel".
Others reaching the list with their first published books were the British music teacher Clare Morrall and the Australian-born DBC Pierre, 42, who lives in Ireland. The list is completed by Zoe Heller and Damon Galgut.
Those who failed to make the cut included the heavyweights, Martin Amis, J M Coetzee and Graham Swift.
35-year-old Ali was born in Dhaka and moved to the north of England with her family shortly after. The former Oxford student secured a 200,000 pounds advance on the strength of the first six chapters of her book, which tells the story of a Bangladeshi girl who comes to England for an arranged marriage and has to adapt to life in an east end Tower Block.
Bureau Report
Others reaching the list with their first published books were the British music teacher Clare Morrall and the Australian-born DBC Pierre, 42, who lives in Ireland. The list is completed by Zoe Heller and Damon Galgut.
Those who failed to make the cut included the heavyweights, Martin Amis, J M Coetzee and Graham Swift.
35-year-old Ali was born in Dhaka and moved to the north of England with her family shortly after. The former Oxford student secured a 200,000 pounds advance on the strength of the first six chapters of her book, which tells the story of a Bangladeshi girl who comes to England for an arranged marriage and has to adapt to life in an east end Tower Block.
Bureau Report