Open Editor Manu Joseph Nominated For Man Asian Literary Prize

His book Serious Men will compete with 9 other top English literature across Asia for the prestigious prize.

Rajat Arora | Delhi | December 15, 2010

Manu Joseph, Editor, Open Magazine has been nominated for the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize 2010 for his book Serious Men. Previously, he was the National Features Editor of The Times of India. He has been a journalist for fourteen years and is based in Delhi.

The 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize Longlist was announced on Monday, 13th December, 2010 at a press event in Hong Kong. Out of the 10 books in longlist, 5-6 shortlist will be announced in February 2011 while the winner of the prize, which carries a cash award of USD 30,000, will be announced on 17^th March, 2010 in Hong Kong.

An elated Manu said, “I am very glad to learn that Serious Men has been longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. The presence of Japanese Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe on the list adds a special glow to the prize.”

Manu adds further, “As an award that considers not just English novels but also translated works of any Asian, the Man Asian Literary Prize is more international than most top literary awards.”

The Man Asian Literary Prize was founded in 2007. It is the first of its kind to recognise the best English works each year by Asian authors and aims to significantly raise international awareness and appreciation of Asian literature.

The Man Asian Literary Prize is sponsored by Man Group plc which also sponsors the Man Booker Prize, the Man Booker International Prize and The Lost Man Booker Prize.

In Serious Men, Ayyan Mani works in the Institute of Theory and Research as a lowly personal assistant to a brilliant, insufferable astronomer, Arvind Acharya. Mani is one of the thousands of men stranded in the slums of Mumbai, but the opportunistic Mani is also an astute observer and sly eavesdropper. Partly to entertain himself, partly to cheer up his once-animated but now work-worn wife, partly to bolster his ten-year-old son's confidence, Mani weaves an outrageous fiction around the boy — a fiction that captures the interest of his superiors and threatens to set into motion an unstoppable and disastrous chain of events. Added to that is the arrival of the beautiful Dr. Oparna — the first woman ever to work at the Institute — and the ongoing “war of the Brahmins.” And Mani, struggling to keep his own dreams alive, sees opportunity in everything.

HarperCollins is the publisher of the book.

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