India’s Aravind Adiga wins Man Booker

Beating predictions by bookies and others, debutant Indian novelist 33-year-old Aravind Adiga”s book "The White Tiger" was on Wednesday declared the winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction for 2008.

Adiga beat favourite Sebastian Barry to take the 50,000 pound (USD 47,000) prize.

The other authors in the shortlist were Amitav Ghosh, Steve Toltz, Linda Grant and Philip Hensher.

Adiga’s novel was described as a "compelling, angry and darkly humorous" novel about a man’s journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. It was described by one reviewer as an "unadorned portrait" of India seen "from the bottom of the heap".

Adiga, who wanted to be a novelist since he was a boy, was born in Madras (now known as Chennai) and now lives in Mumbai.

He becomes the fifth Indian author to win the prize, joining V S Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai who won the prize in 1971, 1981, 1997 and 2006 respectively.

In addition, "The White Tiger" is the ninth winning novel to take its inspiration from India or Indian identity.

His book, "The White Tiger", has been published by Atlantic Books and has already won rave reviews.

Michael Portillo, chairman of the judges, said: "In many ways it was the perfect novel.

The judges found the decision difficult because the shortlist contained such strong candidates. In the end, The White Tiger prevailed because the judges felt that it shocked and entertained in equal measure.

Peter Clarke, Chief Executive of Man Group PLC, presented a cheque of 50,000 pounds to Adiga at a gala dinner in the Guildhall in London.

Michael Portillo, Chair of the judges, said "The judges found the decision difficult because the shortlist contained such strong candidates. In the end, The White Tiger prevailed because the judges felt that it shocked and entertained in equal manner.”

"The novel undertakes the extraordinarily difficult task of gaining and holding the reader’s sympathy…dealing with pressing social issues and significant global developments with astonishing humour."

Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives 2,500 pounds (USD 4,357) and a designer-bound edition of their book.

The judging panel for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction comprised: former MP and Cabinet minister Michael Portillo, editor of Granta Alex Clark; novelists Louise Doughty, founder of Ottakar’s bookshops James Heneage and Hardeep Singh Kohli, a TV and radio broadcaster.

Adiga was born on October 23, 1974 and raised partly in Australia. He studied at Columbia and Oxford Universities and is a former correspondent for TIME magazine in India. His articles have appeared in publications such as the Financial Times, Independent and Sunday Times. Adiga’s book "The White Tiger", a tale of two India‘s, tells the story of Balram, the son of a rickshaw puller in the heartlands, one of the "faceless" poor left behind by the country’s recent economic boom. It charts his journey from working in a teashop to entrepreneurial success.