Indian-Origin Avni Doshi’s Book Longlisted for Booker Prize

Indian-origin author Avni Doshi. 

(Photo Courtesy: Avni Doshi/Facebook)

Indian-origin author Avni Doshi has been nominated to the longlist for the 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction for her debut novel.

Described as “a love story” and “a story about betrayal”, not between lovers, but between mother and daughter”, the book is called ‘Burnt Sugar’ and was released in India as the the ‘Girl in White Cotton’.

Author Avni Doshi was born in New Jersey, and is presently living in Dubai. Her book was selected, alongside 12 others, from a total list of 162 novels published in the UK or Ireland between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020.

The judges who evaluated Doshi’s novel have described it as an “utterly compelling read…sometimes emotionally wrenching but also cathartic, written with poignancy and memorability.”

Among other noted authors, Doshi has been named alongside two-time Booker prize winner Hilary Mantel. Mantel is nominated her book The Mirror and The Light.

Other Authors on the Longlist

Other authors on the list include Gabriel Krauze, Douglas Stuart, Sophie Warth, Diane Cook, and Colum McCaunn.

According to a PTI report, chair of the judging panel, editor and literary critic Margaret Busby said that “each of these books carries an impact that has earned it a place on the longlist, deserving of wide readership.”

“Included are novels carried by the sweep of history with memorable characters brought to life and given visibility, novels that represent a moment of cultural change, or the pressures an individual faces in pre- and post-dystopian society.”   

Margaret Busby

The 50,000 pound literary prize will be announced in November. In 2019, it was won jointly by Margaret Atwood for The Testaments and Bernardine Evaristo for Girl, Woman, Other.