O melhor em língua inglesa (quase sempre, se nos esquecermos do horrível D.B.C. Pierre com Vernon God Little).
O vencedor de 2008 foi Aravind Aringa com a novela The White Tiger.
Adiga, who has wanted to be a novelist since he was a boy, was born in Madras and now lives in Mumbai. He becomes the fifth Indian author to win the prize, joining VS Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai who won the prize in 1971, 1981, 1997 and 2006 respectively. In addition, The White Tiger is the ninth winning novel to take its inspiration from India or Indian identity.
The win is a first for publisher Atlantic; although they had books shortlisted for the prize in 2003 with The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut, and in 2004 with Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor.
The White Tiger was one of six shortlisted titles for the prize. Also shortlisted for this year's prize were Sebastian Barry for The Secret Scripture (Faber), Amitav Ghosh for Sea of Poppies (John Murray), Linda Grant for The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago), Philip Hensher for The Northern Clemency (Fourth Estate) and Steve Toltz for his debut novel A Fraction of the Whole (Hamish Hamilton). Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives £2,500 and a designer-bound edition of their book.
Michael Portillo, Chair of the 2008 judges, made the announcement, which was broadcast live on the BBC Ten O' Clock News. Peter Clarke, Chief Executive of Man Group plc, presented Aravind Adiga with a cheque for £50,000.
The judging panel for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction comprised: Michael Portillo, former MP and Cabinet Minister; Alex Clark, editor of Granta; Louise Doughty, novelist; James Heneage, founder of Ottakar's bookshops; and Hardeep Singh Kohli, TV and radio broadcaster.
Michael Portillo commented:
"The judges found the decision difficult because the shortlist contained such strong candidates. In the end, The White Tiger prevailed because the judges felt that it shocked and entertained in equal measure.
"The novel undertakes the extraordinarily difficult task of gaining and holding the reader's sympathy for a thoroughgoing villain. The book gains from dealing with pressing social issues and significant global developments with astonishing humour."
Portillo went on to explain that the novel had won overall because of 'its originality'. He said that The White Tiger presented 'a different aspect of India' and was a novel with 'enormous literary merit'.
Aravind Adiga studied at Columbia and Oxford Universities and is a former correspondent for Time magazine in India. Adiga's articles have also appeared in publications such as the Financial Times, Independent and Sunday Times.
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