Three Indians in Man Asian Prize shortlist

 Works of three Indian writers -- Amitav Ghosh, Rahul Bhattacharya and Jahnavi Barua -- have been shortlisted for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize.

Ghosh's "River of Smoke", "The Sly Company of People Who Care" by Bhattacharya and Barua's "Rebirth" are the novels that figure in the shortlist, announced here today.

Jamil Ahmad (Pakistan, "The Wandering Falcon"), Kyung-sook Shin (South Korea , "Please Look After Mom"), Yan Lianke (China, "Dream of Ding Village") and Banana Yoshimoto (Japan, "The Lake") complete the shortlist of the prize given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English. The winning author is awarded USD 30,000 and the translator (if any) USD 5,000.

Four of these novels were originally written in English while the books from South Korea, China and Japan were all judged in translation.

"The judges were greatly impressed by the imaginative power of the stories now being written about rapidly changing life in worlds as diverse as the arid borderlands of Pakistan, the crowded cityscape of modern Seoul, and the opium factories of nineteenth century Canton," said chair judge Razia Iqbal.

"This power and diversity made it imperative for us to expand the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize shortlist beyond the usual five books."

The two other judges for this year's prize are Pulitzer-prize finalist and author of "The Surrendered" Chang-rae Lee and Vikas Swarup, author of "Q&A", which was filmed as the Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire".

Five Indians were named in the longlist in November. The two Indians who did not make the cut are Anuradha Roy ("The Folded Earth") and Tarun Tejpal ("The Valley of Masks").Ninety books were submitted for entry in 2011. The winner will be named on March 15 in Hong Kong, the home of the prize founded in 2007.