Rushdie steals the show

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 14. J. M. Coetzee, two-time Booker Prize-winning South African author who has made a habit of walking away with the top honours in absentia, bagged the coveted Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book for his novel ``Disgrace'' at a gala awards dinner here tonight.

Though Coetzee beat three other contenders for the 10,000 pound award, it was fellow-contestant, Salman Rushdie- Eurasian author with Indian moorings-who stole the thunder at what was arguably the biggest literary event the Capital has ever seen. From the moment he surfaced at the Nilgiri Room of The Oberoi, Rushdie - who carries a ``fatwa'' on his head and was forced to stay away from India for 12 years due to security reasons - dominated the show.

Nevertheless, Jeffrey Moore, Canadian author whose book ``Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain'' was adjudged the First Best Book did manage to find his place in the sun with his humour. Addressing the 200- strong gathering which had broken bread together at a formal sit-down dinner before the awards were announced well past 10 in the night, Moore drew out a long applause from the guests when he expressed his gratitude to ``Salman Rushdie for making a special trip here to see me win this award.''

As if this were not enough, Moore went on to say that the Commonwealth Prize was the only award he had bagged in his life after winning a prize for perfect attendance at Sunday School when he was eight. ``This award will go next to it,'' said the author of the book that was picked up from among the other three in the race for being a ``confident, original and innovative novel.'' Moore became the fourth successive Canadian to bag the award.

As was the case with the Best Book Award, the 3,000 pound Best First Book Award was also given away by the Union Minister for External Affairs, Mr. Jaswant Singh. Earlier, each of the eight authors shortlisted for the two coveted awards- billed by some as the alternate Booker-were given a cash prize of 1,000 pounds for topping the contest in their respective regions by the veteran author Nayantara Sahgal.

The other three authors in the race for the Best Book Award were: Shauna Singh Baldwin of Canada for ``What the Body Remembers,'' Salman Rushdie for ``The Ground Beneath Her Feet'' and Lily Brett of Australia for ``Too Many Men.''

And the three other up and coming authors in the reckoning for the Best First Book were: Funso Aiyejina of Nigeria for ``The Legend of the Rockhills and Other Stories,'' Raj Kamal Jha of India for ``The Blue Bedspread'' and Kapka Kassabova of New Zealand for ``Reconnaissance.''

Held in India for the first time since it was instituted 14 years ago, as many as three of the eight authors shortlisted for this year's awards have Indian links. Besides Rushdie and Delhi's Raj Kamal Jha, Baldwin also has an Indian connection. Born in Montreal, she grew up here before moving to the U.S. Sadly, the millennial edition of the Commonwealth Writers Prize saw India draw a blank in the last leg of the race.

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