The UK Royal Society of Literature stated in a press release on Monday that Rahul Bhattacharya has won the 2012 Ondaatje Prize worth £10,000 for his first novel ‘The Sly Company of People Who Care’ based on his year-long sojourn Guyana.
The prize is for the best first novel which best sums up the spirit of a place. The Delhi-based Bhattacharya spent a year in Guyana before writing his novel. The 26 year old journalist gave up his day job to live in a country where he can “escape the deadness of life.” While in Guyana he not only falls in love with the country, but also with a woman.
Already a winner of the Hindu Literary prize 2011 and shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Award, ‘The Sly Company of People Who Care’ has drawn Bhattacharya a host of comparisons with Trinidadian Nobel Prize Winner VS Naipaul, a report in the UK Guardian noted.
Nick Laird, one of the judges of the prize, said that he had “seldom read a book with so much energy” saying that the “novel is a testament both to his potential and to his achievement.”
Another of the judges Michèle Roberts called the work “one of the most exhilarating novels I have read for years.”
Judge Kamila Shamsie commended “The combination of Bhattacharya’s prose style, his great curiosity and generous-though-not-uncritical eye, the light touch with which he conveys knowledge, and the sheer pleasure of his company.”
Bhattacharya is the author of the cricket tour book Pundits from Pakistan, fourth in The Wisden Cricketers’ list of best cricket books of all time, and winner of the Crossword Award for most popular book, 2005.
According to the Guardian, Bhattacharya, in London for the awards ceremony on Monday night, said that Guyana itself was the inspiration for the novel.
“Usually the question of what inspired a book, which authors get asked all the time, is very hard to answer, but this time it’s very easy. It was Guyana – something about it made me feel I wanted to capture the spirit of the place. I wanted to be able to talk about
