The Hindu : Bangladeshi woman in literary magazine list

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 06, 2003

International

International

Bangladeshi woman in literary magazine list

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON JAN. 5. A woman novelist of Bangladeshi origin, with no publication to her credit, is the surprise inclusion in a prestigious list of 20 young writers who are predicted to dominate Britain's literary scene in coming years.

The 35-year-old, Oxford-educated Monica Ali, whose first novel `Bricklane' is to be published this summer, joins the widely-acclaimed Zadie Smith and Hari Kunzru who made their debut last year with `The Impressionist' in a game of crystal-gazing played by the influential British literary magazine, Granta, every ten years.

Many of today's celebrity writers, including Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes and Kazuo Ishiguro were relatively unknown when they were picked up by the Granta for its first list of Britain's best young writers which appeared in 1983. And the second list in 1993 included Hanif Kureishi, Will Self and Ben Okri who went on to win the Booker Prize. But many have fallen by the wayside and their names barely ring a bell.

The hype has already started with Ms. Ali being hailed as a possible Arundhati Roy of the future. Her novel, which apparently got thumbs-up from the entire jury, tells the story of a young woman who is brought from Bangladesh to Britain to marry. "The story has been described as having shades of Manil Suri's `The Death of Vishnu,' possibly Zadie Smith and a dash of Arundhati Roy,'' according to The Observer.

The 2003 list, announced on Saturday midnight after weeks of speculation, has more women writers than the previous two lists but men still dominate the selection which has upset women critics who believe that several promising women novelists have been ignored. For most of the writers — all under 40 — it is their first chance under the spotlight, and critics have already started saying that they would be under pressure to justify their selection.

The novelist and critic, Hilary Mantel, who was on the judges' panel, chaired by the editor of the Granta, Ian Jack, said the list was "weaker than the previous lists'' and the competition was not very strong.

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