Anuk Arudpragasam
Anuk Arudpragasam | |
|---|---|
 Anuk Arudpragasam in Colombo, Sri Lanka | |
| Born | 1988 (age 35–36) |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Alma mater | Stanford University (B.A.) Columbia University (PhD) |
| Notable works |
|
| Website | |
| www | |
Anuk Arudpragasam (Tamil: அனுக் அருட்பிரகாசம்) (born 1988) is a Sri Lankan Tamil novelist writing in English and Tamil. His debut novel The Story of a Brief Marriage was published in 2016 by Flatiron Books/Granta Books and was subsequently translated into French, German, Czech, Mandarin, Dutch and Italian. The novel, which takes place in 2009 during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War, won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize[1] and the German Internationaler Literaturpreis.[2] His second novel, A Passage North, was published in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Early life and education
[edit]Arudpragasam was born in 1988 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Tamil parents.[3][4] He grew up in a wealthy family in Colombo.[5][6] His Tamil family originally came from the northeast of the country.[4] However, he himself never came into direct contact with the civil war that raged in the northeast from 1983 to 2009.[7] Although he did not come from a literary family, his parents encouraged him to read books from a young age. Arudpragasam did not follow their advice until the age of 15 or 16, when he found a taste for philosophical literature in the nearby Vijitha Yapa bookstore.[8] He moved to the United States at the age of 18 to attend Stanford University, graduating with a B.A. in 2010.[4][9] After graduating from Stanford, he lived in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu for a year.[10] He later began a PhD in philosophy at Columbia University, which he completed in 2019.[11]
Career
[edit]The Story of a Brief Marriage (2016)
[edit]The novel, written between 2011 and 2014, describes a day and a night in the lives of two young Tamils, Dinesh and Ganga, who are forced into a marriage as the Sri Lankan army intensifies its bombardment of the camp on the north-eastern coast where they are taking refuge. "I grew up in the south of Sri Lanka in a well-off family, as insulated as someone could be from the war," Arudpragasam told Guernica magazine. "It was an attempt to cross certain kinds of differences in experience between myself and these many other people in the north of the country who I had become separated from."[12]
A review in The New York Times commended the novel for "giving the innocents a place in history" and making readers "kneel before the elegance of the human spirit".[13] The Wall Street Journal celebrated it as a "small work of art whittled from atrocity."[14] Novelist Colm Toibin praised Arudpragasam's dense and attentive style: "Every image in the book, including the most desolate, is rendered with precision and an aura of pure truth and tenderness."[15] The book was listed as one of the best novels of 2016 by The Wall Street Journal,[16] NPR,[6] and the Financial Times.[17] It won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award,[18] and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize[1] and the Internationaler Literaturpreis.
A Passage North (2021)
[edit]Arudpragasam's second novel, A Passage North (Granta Books), was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize.[19] The novel is an attempt to come to terms with life in the wake of the devastation of Sri Lanka's 30-year civil war. He says "'A Passage North is more about witnessing violence from afar than it is about experiencing it up close," which is closer to his own experience of the Sri Lankan civil war.[8]
Third novel
[edit]Arudpragasam is currently working on a third novel "about mothers and daughters in the Tamil diaspora, set partly in New York and partly in Toronto."[8]
Bibliography
[edit]- The Story of a Brief Marriage. New York: Flatiron Books. 6 September 2016. ISBN 978-1-250-07240-5.[20]
- The Story of a Brief Marriage. London: Granta Books. 6 October 2016. ISBN 978-1-78378-237-6.[21]
- The Story of a Brief Marriage. New Delhi: Fourth Estate / HarperCollins Publishers India. October 2016. ISBN 978-9352640829.[22]
- A Passage North. London / New York: Hogarth. 13 July 2021. ISBN 978-0-593-23070-1.[23]
- A Passage North. Delhi: Hamish Hamilton / Penguin India. 13 July 2021. ISBN 978-0-670-09489-9.[24]
- A Passage North. London: Granta Books. 15 July 2021. ISBN 978-1-78378-694-7.[25]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Dylan Thomas prize: Shortlist for 2017 award announced". March 28, 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ "The 2018 List". Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ "Q&A with author Anuk Arudpragasam". Financial Times. 9 December 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
- ^ a b c "'A Small Window of Consciousness': An Interview With Anuk Arudpragasam". Pacific Standard. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
- ^ "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. October 6, 2016.
- ^ a b "The Story Of A Brief Marriage' Provides Intimate Look At Sri Lanka's Civil War". NPR. September 7, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ "What is Tamil for Loss? Remembering the Sri Lankan Civil War". Department of African American Studies.
- ^ a b c "Anuk Arudpragasam Q&A | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
- ^ Nair, Nandini (9 November 2016). "A War in Memory". Open. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
- ^ Filgate, Michele (28 September 2016). "A Body in Common: Anuk Arudpragasam". The Barnes & Noble Review. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
- ^ "The Institute for Ideas and Imagination Announces Third Class of Fellows". news.columbia.edu. 15 May 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
- ^ Hoenicke, Sarah (January 24, 2017). "Anuk Arudpragasam: Within the Bounds of the Body". Guernica. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ Freeman, Ru (October 7, 2016). "A Brave Debut Novel About the Sri Lankan Civil War". The New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ Sacks, Sam (September 3, 2016). "Sam Sacks on Jonathan Safran Foer's New Novel". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ "Love in Wartime". August 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ Sacks, Sam (December 29, 2016). "And the Best Novel of the Year Is..." The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ "Best books of 2016: Fiction". Financial Times. December 2, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ "Sri Lankan Author Wins Shakti Bhatt Prize". The Hindu. November 24, 2017.
- ^ Flood, Alison (14 September 2021). "Nadifa Mohamed is sole British writer to make Booker prize shortlist". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ "Fiction Book Review: The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam. Flatiron, $24.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-250-07240-5". Publishers Weekly. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
- ^ "Find out some of the best new books released this week". The Mail Barrow. 7 October 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
- ^ "October Picks: Five Indian New Releases for Your Bookshelf". HarperCollins Publishers India. 29 October 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
- ^ "A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam: 9780593230701". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
- ^ "A Passage North". Penguin Random House India. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
- ^ "A Passage North". Granta. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
