Beating predictions, debutant Indian novelist Aravind Adiga's book The White Tiger, described as a "perfect novel" by the judges, was today declared the winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction for 2008.
The 33-year-old Mumbai-based journalist beat favourite Sebastian Barry to take the £50,000 ($47,000) prize. The other authors in the shortlist were Amitav Ghosh, Steve Toltz, Linda Grant and Philip Hensher.
Adiga's novel was described as a "compelling, angry and darkly humorous" novel about a man's journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. It was described by one reviewer as an "unadorned portrait" of India seen "from the bottom of the heap".
Michael Portillo, chairman of the judges, said: "In many ways it was the perfect novel. 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," Portillo said.
Adiga, who wanted to be a novelist since he was a boy, was born in Chennai and now lives in Mumbai. He becomes the fifth Indian author to win the prize, joining V S 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. His book, The White Tiger, has been published by Atlantic Books and has already won rave reviews.
"I would like to dedicate this award to the people of New Delhi," Adiga said on accepting the prize, adding that 300 years ago it was the most important city on earth and could become so again.
"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 said.
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".
The author had been given odds of 7/1 before the ceremony by bookmakers William Hill. Irish writer Barry had been tipped to take the prize at 7/4. The bookmakers' favourite has not won since Yann Martel in 2002. Adiga was born on October 23, 1974 and raised partly in Australia. He studied at Columbia and Oxford Universities and is a former correspondent for TIME magazine in India.
His articles have appeared in publications such as the Financial Times, Independent and Sunday Times. Adiga's book The White Tiger, a tale of two Indias, tells the story of Balram, the son of a rickshaw puller in the heartlands, one of the "faceless" poor left behind by the country's recent economic boom.
It charts his journey from working in a teashop to entrepreneurial success.
The award, which honours the best fiction written in English by an author from the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth nations, was handed out at the Guildhall in London.
The win means Adiga can expect an upturn in sales and added recognition.
