London, January 26 (ANI): Indian origin author Jeet Thayil has won the DSC Prize for South Asian literature for his Booker-nominated debut novel about drug addiction in Mumbai - 'Narcopolis'.
Thayil is the first Indian to win the prize, awarded annually to a work of fiction "inspired by the South Asian region, people, culture and diaspora."
Thayil, one of six shortlisted authors, won 50,000 dollars (32,000 pounds), the BBC reported.
The shortlist was drawn from more than 80 entries by authors and translators from around the world.
Books in contention included Jamil Ahmad's 'The Wandering Falcon', Tahmima Anam's 'The Good Muslim', Amitav Ghosh's 'River of Smoke', Mohammed Hanif's 'Our Lady of Alice Bhatti' and Uday Prakash's 'The Walls of Delhi'.
Manhad Narula, one of the organisers of the literary prize, said the winning novel "unearthed... a rare, unfiltered, inside view into a lesser known world that exists within South Asia."
Thayil, a poet and librettist who has lived in Mumbai, Hong Kong and New York, has called his first novel "nightmarish".
The DSC Prize, now in its third year, is sponsored by the construction company DSC Limited, principal sponsor of the Jaipur Festival. (ANI)
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