A task for you: Think about your top 50 books of all time. How long do you think you’d need? A day, a week, a month? For the group of us it has been months in the making.
What makes it so tricky? How do you choose just one book from the likes of RK Narayan and Rushdie? How do you pick between between Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Moth Smoke? Being India’s fastest selling author, should Chetan Baghat bag a place on the list? I couldn’t get past the first chapter of One Night at the Call Centre but my fellow list-makers insist he’s a talented storyteller. Less to do with clever writing and more to do with a clever commercial decision, I say. Do we include influential translations of religious scriptures or stay away from religion altogether? What do you think?
In line with the Festival, we’d like to include a variety genres under the South Asian literature umbrella. We want to cover as many regions within the subcontinent as possible. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Kashmir have produced some truly exceptional authors and we look forward to marking their work. We’ve ensured inclusion of graphic novels, non-fiction, short stories, poetry, novellas and biographies. We don’t want this to be a high-brow list celebrating the usual suspects, we hope it’s human and more importantly, accessible.
Some of the most wonderful books we’ve read aren’t available to buy in UK bookshops or on Amazon, and we’d like to see that change. South Asian literature has come a long way since writing about the Raj and arranged marriages (although some of the most endearing books do address these issues!) and our goal is to ensure this list will demonstrate that. So come on then, what would make your top 50?
More information here.
What makes it so tricky? How do you choose just one book from the likes of RK Narayan and Rushdie? How do you pick between between Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Moth Smoke? Being India’s fastest selling author, should Chetan Baghat bag a place on the list? I couldn’t get past the first chapter of One Night at the Call Centre but my fellow list-makers insist he’s a talented storyteller. Less to do with clever writing and more to do with a clever commercial decision, I say. Do we include influential translations of religious scriptures or stay away from religion altogether? What do you think?
In line with the Festival, we’d like to include a variety genres under the South Asian literature umbrella. We want to cover as many regions within the subcontinent as possible. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Kashmir have produced some truly exceptional authors and we look forward to marking their work. We’ve ensured inclusion of graphic novels, non-fiction, short stories, poetry, novellas and biographies. We don’t want this to be a high-brow list celebrating the usual suspects, we hope it’s human and more importantly, accessible.
Some of the most wonderful books we’ve read aren’t available to buy in UK bookshops or on Amazon, and we’d like to see that change. South Asian literature has come a long way since writing about the Raj and arranged marriages (although some of the most endearing books do address these issues!) and our goal is to ensure this list will demonstrate that. So come on then, what would make your top 50?
More information here.
