Sri Lankan author Anuk Arudpragasam has won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2017 for his novel The Story of a Brief Marriage , which was also awarded the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017 recently.
One of the judges for the shortlist, Arshia Sattar, said the novel “presents the civil war in Sri Lanka like never before. Writing from within the debris of Tamil lives in prose that can pierce your heart, Arudpragasam’s protagonists find dignity as they piece together strategies of survival”.
The book was chosen from 47 titles submitted for consideration this year, with judges Kamila Shamsie, Rohini Mohan and Margaret Mascarenhas unanimously picking it.
