New Delhi: The Economist & Crossword Bookstore in Association with Principal Retirement Advisors & Standard Chartered Bank today announced the shortlist for the prestigious The Economist Crossword Book Award. This shortlist was announced across four categories which include Indian Fiction, Indian Non-Fiction, Indian Translation & Children's Writing.
The Economist Crossword Book Award is the only Indian award that recognizes and rewards good writing and also actively promotes Indian authors and their books. Last year the Award received 300 valid entries in the above mentioned categories which have now grown by 10% for the current year, thus making the awards representative of the best of contemporary Indian literature.
The Popular award has a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh & the trophy. The winner will be announced on October 18, 2012 at the awards ceremony.
The nominees under the various categories are as follows:
English Fiction
-River of Smoke - Amitav Ghosh
- Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil
- The Storyteller of Marrakesh - Joydeep Roy Bhattacharya
- The Folded Earth - Anuradha Roy
- The Sly Company of People Who Care - Rahul Bhattacharya
English Non-Fiction
- Taj Mahal Foxtrot - Naresh Fernandes
- Lost Loves - Arshia Sattar
- His Majesty's Opponent - Sugata Bose
- Tinderbox - M.J. Akbar
- A Free Man - Aman Sethi
Translation
- In Freedom's Shade - Translated by Ayesha Kidwai
- The Story of Felanee - Translated by Deepika Phukan
- Yellow is the Colour of Longing - Translated by J. Devika
- The Araya Woman - Translated by Catherine Thankamma
- 17 - Translated by Arunava Sinha
Popular
- Revolution 2020 - Chetan Bhagat
- The Secret of The Nagas - Amish
- Women & Weight Loss Tamasha - Rujuta Diwekar
- Can Love Happen Twice? - Ravinder Singh
- The Incredible Banker - Ravi Subramanian
- River of Smoke - Amitav Ghosh
- The Habit of Winning - Prakash Iyer
- Get To the Top - Suhel Seth
- I Have a Dream - Rashmi Bansal
- The Winning Way - Harsha & Anita Bhogle
Children's Writing
- Raja and the Giant Donut by Prashant Pinge
- The Mystery of MindNet by Anirudha Sen Gupta
- Mayil Will Not Be Quiet by Niveditha Subramaniam and Sowmya Rajendran
- Beyond the Blue River by B Vinayan
- Mumbai Roller-coaster by Rajorshi Chakraborti
Note from JuryWriting for children demands the best and the freshest of a writer's imagination, backed by a high degree of editorial skill. The listed books are good reads and tackle a variety of themes, but in the meld of originality, ideas, and narrative skill, they fall short. We looked for empathy rather than discrimination, fun rather than instruction, audacity rather than political correctness, wonder rather than world-weary ennui - and came away disappointed. We didn't find the quality of timelessness that so distinguishes award-winning material. We have listed five books for honorable mention. There is no award this year.
