Kerala-based writer Anees Salim won The Hindu Prize for Best Fiction 2013 for his second novel, >Vanity Bagh for consistent writing and humour and imagination.
“The book is a very comic account of a young man from a minority group from a place called Vanity Bagh, also called Little Pakistan. It is about physical cities, both real and imagined,” said writer Timeri N. Murari, one of the jury members.
Novelist Jim Crace made the announcement on Monday evening at the valedictory session of The Hindu Lit for Life. “There is a lot of humour in the book that runs through it. It is philosophical and liberating,” Mr. Murari added.
Other judges in the panel included Malayalam poet, author and critic K. Satchidanandan, poet and writer Arundhathi Subramaniam, surgeon and novelist Kavery Nambisan and writer, and critic Geeta Doctor.
Anees Salim’s book was in the race for the prize along with Manu Joseph’s The Illicit Happiness of Other People , Manjul Bajaj’s Another Man’s Wife and Other Stories , Sonora Jha’s Foreign and Amandeep Sandhu’s Roll of Honour .
Mr. Salim was represented by his publisher Pranav Kumar of Picador, who also read out his acceptance speech at the event.
The Hindu Prize for Best Fiction recognises the contribution of Indian writers to literary culture. It comprises a cash component of Rs. 5 lakh and a plaque.
Manu Joseph won the first The Hindu Prize for Best Fiction in 2010 for his debut novel Serious Men .
