Kishwar Desai wins Costa debut award
Kishwar Desai’s novel Witness the Night has won the 2010 Costa Book Awards, one of UK’s prestigious literary prizes that recognises great writings from writers based in the UK and Ireland. A thrilled Desai, talking to this newspaper over the phone from Goa, said: “It feels wonderful to have been recognised. It’s a huge encouragement.”
Published by HarperCollins, Witness the Night, which won in the First Novel Award category, is a mystery novel set in a small town and deals with the dark side of female foeticide in India. Desai will receive the £5,000-prize at a ceremony in London on January 25.
The shortlist had a strong Asian flavour as also vying for the award in the same category were Nikesh Shukla (Coconut Unlimited), Aatish Taseer (The Temple-Goers) and Simon Thirsk (Not Quite White).
The judges (Anita Rani, Anneka Rice and Mark Thornton) said of Witness the Night: “Desai pulls off a remarkable trick, transplanting a country house murder to modern-day India in a book that’s not afraid to tackle serious themes.”
“We are living in disturbing times. And we got to have books to do with social issues. While they must engage the reader and grab their attention, they must engage more with the realities around,” said Desai, adding that she had a great sense of relief to use imagination while working on a book as she had dealt with objectivity all along as a journalist. “It was great to get into the emotional side of things. I felt a great sense of liberation as the characters could do anything. They were not restricted by anything,” said Desai, adding that the book had a huge resonance as it deals with real issues. Witness the Night has been turned into a series by HarperCollins and will see Desai pen more titles as part of that series.
Desai, who has worked in print and broadcast media as journalist, scriptwriter, TV anchor and producer, is also an Asian Age columnist.
Darlingji: The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt, her first non-fiction book, was published in 2007. Desai shuttles between London, Delhi and Goa.
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