Nearly half the writers on the Booker Prize longlist this year have desi connections.

Adiga

Newcomers Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger) and Mohammed Hanif (A Case of Exploding Mangoes) and veteran novelists Joseph O’Neill (cricket novel Netherland), Amitav Ghosh (Sea of Poppies + more) and Salman Rushdie (The Enchantress of Florence) all made this year’s list, along with Sri Lankan-born Michelle de Kretzer (The Lost Dog). All except Rushdie are newcomers to Booker noms, though Ghosh once turned down a regional Commonwealth Prize for The Glass Palace.

Adiga’s excellent novel is actually his debut, so this is a huge boost for him. Sadly, this is the first year in living memory that Rushdie’s entry is not one of my favorites. He’s had a fine Booker year regardless. If Midnight’s Children inaugurated a literary India Shining, perhaps the selection of The White Tiger marks an India confident enough for self-critique.

I feel a twinge of sadness that… Hanif Kureishi, Richard Milward and Adam Mars-Jones don’t figure among the lucky 13… A mischievous part of me wants [John] Berger to win. Last time, he spat in the committee’s face (poor, poor professors) and donated half his prize loot to the Black Panthers. The money’s no cleaner (as Berger would see it) in 2008 than it was 35 years ago, coming as it does from a (Man) hedge fund, rather than (Booker) sugar plantations. [Link]

O’Neill

In terms of dirty money, the Booker has little on Rhodes Scholars:

[Cecil] Rhodes wanted to expand the British Empire because he believed that the Anglo-Saxon race was destined to greatness. In his last will and testament, Rhodes said of the British, “I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race”…

Mark Twain’s summation of Rhodes [reads,] “I admire him, I frankly confess it; and when his time comes I shall buy a piece of the rope for a keepsake”… [Link]

Here are the other longlist contenders:

Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
From A to X by John Berger
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz [Link]

Kohli

The shortlist will be announced on September 9 and the winner will be announced on October 14… [Link]

Comedian and TV presenter Hardeep Singh Kohli (Meet the Magoons) is on this year’s judging panel.

Previously: Soft launch, ‘Tiger’ burning bright, Three things I liked: microreviews, Trash fiction, Firenze via Samarkand