Jhumpa Lahiri has won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2015 for her novel ‘The Lowland’, beating four other contenders for the $50,000 prize.
Lahiri, 47, who could not be present at the awards ceremony, held at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), India appeared over Skype to thank the judges. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there due to prior commitment in Rome. The prize is a huge honor and I am very thankful to my parents,” said Lahiri, according to the Indian Express website.
On her second novel, a portrayal of two brothers in 1960s Calcutta during the Naxalite movement, she stated, “I had published this book with the apprehension that I had not done justice to the time and events that inspired the story. I am therefore particularly proud of this DSC prize.”
The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is a top literary prize awarded annually to writers of any ethnicity or nationality writing about South Asia themes such as culture, politics, history, or people. It is for an original full-length novel written in English, or translated into English. The award is for novels published in the year preceding the judging of the prize.
The prize was instituted by DSC Limited, an Indian infrastructure and construction company which also sponsors the Jaipur Literature Festival.
Jhumpa Lahiri is an Indian American author. Her debut short story collection ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ (1999), won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her first novel, The ‘Namesake’ (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name.
Her book ‘The Lowland’, published in 2013, was a nominee for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction.
