Page 65 - 31MAR2019E

theStack BOOKER PRIZE FINALLY

GETS NEW SPONSOR
Charles sobhraj: InsIde the heart of the bIkInI kIller Silicon Valley billionaire Michael Moritz and his wife
By Raamesh Koirala; Rupa; 500; 204pp Harriet Heyman’s charitable foundation Crankstart will
support the Britain’s most prestigious literary award
Raamesh Koirala, a renowned cardiac surgeon in Nepal, found
himself in a dilemma when the offer to operate on Sobhraj’s heart After the MAn Group’s decision last month to
knocked on his door. Between the close administra- end its 18-year relationship with the world of books,
tive, police and global media surveillance, he, with the Booker Prize have found a new sponsor. Silicon
his team, successfully operated on him in June 2017. Valley billionaire Michael Moritz and his wife Harriet
In “Charles Sobhraj”, his wife asked him: “Does he Heyman’s charitable foundation ‘Crankstart’ will be
even have a heart?” After cutting him open, Koirala the new supporter of the Britain’s most prestigious
found the answer: “Inside the sac was Sobhraj’s heart. literary award which has done much to boost the
A normal-looking, human heart. A heart beating in- popularity of Indian writers in English.
nocently, oblivious to the monstrosities committed by The new arrangement, according to the Booker
the one it was beating for.” It shows candid vignettes Prize Foundation, will begin on June 1 after the 2019
of the cold, calculated ‘bikini killer’, infamous for Man Booker International Prize winner announcement,
escaping jails, as “a balding man worried about his which will also mark the conclusion of 18 years of spon-
failing health; a man who requests the doctor to put off his surgery sorship by Man Group. Thereafter, the original prize
for a few days because he is afraid; a frail man who bursts into tears will once again be known as The Booker Prize, while
when he learns the operation has a slim chance of success”. the prize for literature in translation will become The
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Booker Prize.
The financial arrange-
a nIght In the hIlls ments have not been disclosed
By Manav Kaul; Westland Books; 299; 214pp yet except that Moritz and
Heyman have committed to
A bittersweet ode to teenage love, when coyly- an initial five-year exclusive
exchanged handwritten letters expressed newfound funding term for the Booker.
feelings of affection, reminds readers of the days that According to the Guardian,
breezed past the previous generation like a dream. “Moritz worked previously as a
Written by Manav Kaul, the story ‘Prem Kabootar’ journalist for Time magazine,
(translated to ‘A Bunch of Old Letters’) finds space in writing a biography of Steve
a new collection of stories set in the unnamed village Jobs and Apple before turning
and towns of the country. Summaries of more stories to technology investment. He
tell us: A tourist is baffled by his taciturn companion has been a partner at Sequoia
on a dark and scary night in the hills; a woman aches Capital since 1986 and invested
to find a way out of an extra-marital affair that is $25 million in what was then
going nowhere; a middle-aged man ponders the little details of his the tech start-up Google in 1999. His recent work as
first love affair from the confines of a hospital bed. Actor-author an author includes co-authoring Leading with former
Manav Kaul mines the varied and many-hued emotions of teenage Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson.”
crushes, fear, love, longing and lust in the new book ‘A Night in the The £50,000 award is among the most coveted
Hills’. literary honours and apart from the global recognition
------------------------------------------------------------------------- that the winning novels get, the Prize also boosts its
sales manifold. In the week following the 2017 winner
the atlas of reds and blues announcement, for instance, the sales of ‘Lincoln in the
By Devi S. Laskar; Hachette India; 550; 258pp Bardo’ by George Saunders increased by 1,227 per cent.
Its list of winners includes many of the giants of the last
A debut book by the author, who is a native of North Carolina, “The five decades, from Salman Rushdie to Margaret Atwood,
Atlas of Reds and Blues” grapples with the complexities of the sec- Iris Murdoch to JM Coetzee. The prize has also recog-
ond-generation American experience, what it means to be a woman nised many authors early in their careers.
of colour in the workplace, and a sister, a wife and a The prize has also been instrumental in providing
mother to daughters in today’s America. Drawing in- international recognition to prominent Indian novel-
spiration from her own terrifying experience of a raid ists such as Arundhati Roy (winner 1997 for ‘The God
on her home, Laskar’s novel explores an alternative of Small Things’), Kiran Desai (winner 2006 for ‘The
reality that might have been. It explores the seem- Inheritance of Loss’), Aravind Adiga (winner 2009 for
ingly harmless question: “Where are you from”, in the ‘The White Tiger’), along with Amitav Ghosh, Anuradha
context of children of immigrants who are constantly Roy and Jeet Thayil, whose novels have been shortlisted
reminded that they do not belong. Devi’s work has in the past. The good news is that the original prize
appeared in Tin House and Rattle, among other publi- will once again be known as The Booker Prize, while
cations. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, the prize for literature in translation will become The
and is an alumna of The OpEd Project and VONA. International Booker Prize.

Tehelka / 31 march 2019 65 www.Tehelka.com