Preti Taneja’s debut novel, We That Are Young has been shortlisted for this year’s Desmond Elliot Prize.
It is one of three novels that is in the running to win the £10,000 prize awarded and be named the best debut novel of the year.
We That Are Young is an ambitious retelling of King Lear which explores the play’s themes of severed relationships and warring families within the setting of modern-day India. The novel is published by independent publisher Galley Beggar Press its second shortlisting for the Prize. Sarah Perry said, “The scope of Taneja’s ambition is breath-taking. We That Are Young is both universal in its themes of familial duty and personal failing, and exquisitely specific in its depiction of contemporary Indian society.”
The other books on the shortlist are:
Gail Honeyman’s best-selling debut, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Harper Collins)
Paula Cocozza’s fantasy novel, How to be Human (Hutchinson)
Chair of judges, Sarah Perry is joined on the panel by the award-winning journalist and broadcaster, Samira Ahmed, and head of fiction and publisher liaison for Waterstones, Chris White. The winner will be revealed at a ceremony at Fortnum & Mason on 20thJune, where they will be presented with a cheque for £10,000.
The prize has been previously won by writers Nikita Lalwani (2008) and Anjali Joseph (2011)
