Adiga, Rushdie shortlisted for Dublin Literary award

US-based Indian writer Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni ("The Palace of Illusions"), Anuradha Roy and Canada-based Jaspreet Singh ("Chef") also figure in the list. 156 titles are in the list for the 100,000 euro award.

The shortlist will be announced next April and the winner will be named in June.
While Adiga has been nominated for his "The White Tiger", Rushdie has been selected for his "The Enchantress of Florence" and Ghosh for "Sea of Poppies".

The Award is administered by Dublin City Public Libraries. The judges of the 2010 award are Anne Fine, Anatoly Kudryavitsky, Abdourahman Waberi, Zoe Wicomb and Eve Patten.

Previous winners of the prestigious award include "Man Gone Down" by Michael Thomas (2009), De Niro's "Game by Rawi Hage" (2008), "Out Stealing Horses" by Per Petterson (2007) and "The Master" by Colm Toibin (2006).

After winning the 2008 Man Booker Prize for his debut novel, "The White Tiger", Indian-born author Aravind Adiga will publish his second venture "Last Man in the Tower" in early 2011, the author's publisher said Thursday.

The Indian rights for Adiga's new novel have been acquired by HarperCollins India.Unlike his first novel which was set in New Delhi, Adiga's second book is set in the business capital of the country, Mumbai.
V.K. Karthika, chief editor and publisher at HarperCollins India, said: "'Last Man in the Tower' is a sweeping novel about contemporary India, more particularly Mumbai. Adiga's characters are unforgettable, his prose riveting."

The fourth Indian-born author to win the Booker Prize - others being Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai, Adiga had over 1.50 lakh copies of the hardback version of his "The White Tiger" sold since its publication in April 2008.

The paperback version of the book is due to be out in December this year.