Aravind Adiga

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Aravind Adiga
Native name ಅರವಿಂದ ಅಡಿಗ
Born (1974-10-23) 23 October 1974 (age 49)
Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation Writer
Ethnicity Indian
Citizenship Australian
Alma mater Columbia University
Magdalen College, Oxford
Notable works The White Tiger
Notable awards 2008 Man Booker Prize
(The White Tiger)
Website
www.aravindadiga.com
Portal icon Literature portal

Aravind Adiga (Kannada: ಅರವಿಂದ ಅಡಿಗ) (born 23 October 1974[1][2]) is an Indian-Australian writer and journalist. His debut novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.[3]

Biography

Early life and education

Aravind Adiga was born in Madras (now Chennai) on 23 October 1974 to Dr. K. Madhava Adiga and Usha Adiga, both of whom hailed from Mangalore. His paternal grandfather was the late K. Suryanarayana Adiga, former chairman of Karnataka Bank,[4][5] while his maternal great-grandfather, U. Rama Rao, was a popular medical practitioner and Congress politician from Madras.[6]

Adiga grew up in Mangalore and studied at Canara High School, then at St. Aloysius High School, where he completed his SSLC in 1990. He secured first rank in the state in SSLC. Incidentally his elder brother, Anand Adiga, secured 2nd rank in SSLC and first rank in PUC in the state.[5][7]

After emigrating to Sydney, Australia, with his family, he studied at James Ruse Agricultural High School. He studied English literature at Columbia College, Columbia University, in New York, where he studied with Simon Schama and graduated as salutatorian in 1997.[8] He also studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, where one of his tutors was Hermione Lee.

Career

Adiga began his journalistic career as a financial journalist, interning at the Financial Times. With pieces published in the Financial Times and Money, he covered the stock market and investment, interviewing, among others, Donald Trump. His review of previous Booker Prize winner Peter Carey's book, Oscar and Lucinda, appeared in The Second Circle, an online literary review.[9] He was subsequently hired by TIME, where he remained a South Asia correspondent for three years before going freelance.[10] During his freelance period, he wrote The White Tiger. He currently lives in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.[11]

Booker Prize

Aravind Adiga's debut novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Booker Prize . He is the fourth Indian-born author to win the prize, after Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai. (V. S. Naipaul, another winner, is of Indian origin, but was not born in India.) The five other authors on the shortlist included one other Indian writer (Amitav Ghosh) and another first-time writer (Steve Toltz).[12] The novel studies the contrast between India's rise as a modern global economy and the lead character, Balram, who comes from crushing rural poverty.[13]

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At a time when India is going through great changes and, with China, is likely to inherit the world from the West, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society (Indian). That's what I'm trying to do – it is not an attack on the country, it's about the greater process of self-examination.

He explained that "the criticism by writers like Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens of the 19th century helped England and France become better societies".[14]

Shortly after winning the prize it was alleged that Adiga had, the previous year, sacked the agent that had secured his contract with Atlantic Books at the 2007 London Book Fair.[15] In April 2009 it was announced that the novel would be adapted into a feature film.[16] Propelled mainly by the Booker Prize win, The White Tiger's Indian hardcover edition has sold in excess of 200,000 copies.[17]

Other Works

Adiga's second book, Between the Assassinations, was released in India in November 2008 and in the US and UK in mid-2009.[18] The book features 12 interlinked short stories.[19] His second novel and third published book, Last Man in Tower, was published in the UK in 2011.

Bibliography

Novels

Short stories

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Indian Australian novelist Aravind Adiga wins Booker prize - Express India Archived 17 January 2010 at WebCite
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ At Last! Commencement For More than 8,900 Today. Columbia University Record. MAY 21, 1997 Archived 17 January 2010 at WebCite
  9. ↑ The Second Circle Archived 17 January 2010 at WebCite
  10. ↑ Adiga is the first current or former TIME staffer to win the Man Booker Prize, or its predecessor, the Booker Prize.
  11. ↑ The second circle Archived 17 January 2010 at WebCite
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Smuggler, Ascension acquire 2008 Mann Booker winner White Tiger | News | Screen
  17. ↑ "http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article148574.ece"
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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