HONG KONG: Three debut novelists and a Nobel laureate were among the 15 writers long-listed for Asia's most prestigious literary prize on Tuesday, with entries spread across the region from Turkey to Japan.
The long-list for the $30,000 Man Asian Literary Prize was drawn from 108 published works from nine different Asian countries, submitted to a panel of judges led by literary critic and journalist Maya Jaggi.
“The far-ranging stories on our long-list draw the reader into some beautiful and some gruelling landscapes,” said Jaggi in a statement.
“From the glaciers of northern Pakistan to the unforgiving Saudi desert; from an affluent Istanbul seaside resort to a Bombay opium den — and further afield to Montreal and Mexico.”
“Silent House,” an early work from Turkish writer and 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Orhan Pamuk, made the list after appearing in English for the first time.
Turkey and Iran are among the 35 countries eligible for the prize, which is looking for a new sponsor with London-based Man Group ending its funding for the Asian prize after the 2012 event.
A total of seven books appear in translation, including “Northern Girls” by Chinese author Sheng Keyi, about a sixteen-year-old who abandons her Hunan village and heads for the bright lights of Shenzhen.
Other works include “The Garden of Evening Mists” by Malaysia's Tan Twan Eng, Jeet Thayil’s “Narcopolis”, “Goat Days” by Benyamin and Anjali Joseph's “Another Country”.
The 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize Long-list: * Goat Days — Benyamin (India) * Between Clay and Dust — Musharraf Ali Farooqi (Pakistan) * Another Country — Anjali Joseph (India) * The Briefcase — Hiromi Kawakami (Japan) * Thinner Than Skin — Uzma Aslam Khan (Pakistan) * Ru — Kim Thuy (Vietnam / Canada) * Black Flower — Young-Ha Kim (South Korea) * Island of a Thousand Mirrors — Nayomi Munaweera (Sri Lanka) * Silent House — Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) * Honour — Elif Shafak (Turkey) * Northern Girls — Sheng Keyi (China) * The Garden of Evening Mists — Tan Twan Eng (Malaysia) * The Road To Urbino — Roma Tearne (Sri Lanka / UK) * Narcopolis — Jeet Thayil (India) * The Bathing Women — Tie Ning (China).—AFP
