Booker Prize
Aravind Adiga's debut novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Booker Prize. He is the fourth Indian-born author to win the prize, after Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai. (V. S. Naipaul, another winner, is of Indian origin, but was not born in India). The five other authors on the shortlist included one other Indian writer (Amitav Ghosh) and another first-time writer (Steve Toltz). The novel studies the contrast between India's rise as a modern global economy and the lead character, Balram, who comes from crushing rural poverty.
| “ | At a time when India is going through great changes and, with China, is likely to inherit the world from the West, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society (Indian). That's what I'm trying to do – it is not an attack on the country, it's about the greater process of self-examination. | ” |
He explained that "the criticism by writers like Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens of the 19th century helped England and France become better societies".
Shortly after winning the prize it was alleged that Adiga had, the previous year, sacked the agent that had secured his contract with Atlantic Books at the 2007 London Book Fair. In April 2009 it was announced that the novel would be adapted into a feature film. Propelled mainly by the Booker Prizer win, The White Tiger's Indian hardcover edition has sold in excess of 200,000 copies.
Read more about this topic: Aravind Adiga, Biography
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