Could you give our readers a flavour of the story? ‘The Marriage Bureau For Rich People’ is set in Vizag, my home town in South India. It has two major stories intertwined in it – a retired couple, Mr and Mrs Ali, who have opened the marriage bureau and the young girl, Aruna, who joins …
An afternoon with Preeta Samarasan
I meet with Preeta Samarasan, it’s my first interview of the day and its obvious that I’m nervous but Preeta is so friendly she quickly puts me at ease. We talk about her book The Evening Is a Whole Day – and I apologise to her for not having read it yet! (Maybe I shouldn’t …
On meeting Tahmima Anam
I meet with Tahmima Anam minutes after she has given a reading – we have only ten minutes – so I quickly rush through the questions. I’m struck at how petite she is, there is an elegant poise about her. Without warning we are interrupted by a passer by. We both apologise, even though none …
Adiga wins Man Booker Prize 2008
Aravind Adiga is named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The White Tiger, published by Atlantic (October 14, 2008). The Indian writer is one of two first-time novelists on the 2008 Man Booker shortlist of six. The other is Steve Toltz. Only three other debut novelists have achieved this in …
A Pleasure to Meet Tishani Doshi
Tishani Doshi was born in Madras to a Welsh mother and a Gujarati father, and is based in India, after periods living in America and England. Her first book of poems, Countries of the Body won the 2006 Forward prize for best first collection. She was the winner of the 2006 All-India Poetry Competition, and …
The Asian Writer New Writing Competition
The Asian Writer New Writing Competition is for: poems of up to 40 lines, max of three; fiction of up to 2,500 words, max of three. It is particularly aimed at encouraging British Asian writers. All short listed entries will be published on our blog, with the winning entries published on our website and in …
Hanif tops Guardian First Book Award
Mohammed Hanif, author of The Case of the Exploding Mangoes has been longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2008. In total, four novels, four non-fiction books, a collection of short stories and a book of poetry have made the cut from a selection of 170 books. The award is unique for rewarding new writing …
Two Asian Authors make Man Booker Prize Shortlist
First time novelist, Aravind Adiga and Amitav Ghosh have been shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize. Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, is the story of Balram Halwai who dreams of escaping his life as a teashop worker turned chauffeur. Yet when his chance finally arrives and his eyes are opened to the revelatory city of …
The Road from Damascus
ROBBIN YASSIN-KASSAB the road from Damascus published by Penguin June 2008 It is summer 2001 and Sami Traifi has escaped his fraying marriage and minimal job prospects to Damascus. In search of his roots and himself, he insteads find a forgotten uncle in a gloomy back room, and an ugly secret about his beloved father… …
The End of the road? Surely not! The Asian Writer talks exclusively to Robbin Yassin-Kassab
Q. Could you tell me more about your writing journey…how did the idea for The road from Damascus come about? What lead you to write this story? A. Well, I just started writing. For many years I’d failed to write because I couldn’t find a story. What I didn’t know was that the story is …