Guardian prize for Zadie Smith

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, DEC. 8. After missing out on a string of literary awards, including the Booker Prize, Zadie Smith on Thursday won the œ 10,000 Guardian First Book award for her widely acclaimed first novel ``White Teeth'', a satirical romp about multiculturalism.

Novelist Julian Barnes, one of the judges, said the novel gave him a ``burn of envy as a fiction writer.'' Others praised it for its ``muscular prose'' and ``feisty'' style. Smith (25), beat four other contenders on the shortlist, including Naomi Klein whose book ``No Logo'' has become a hit with the critics of consumer capitalism.

One judge was quoted as saying that it is a book that ``people should be strapped to chairs and made to read''. But it lost out on style which the judges thought was pedestrian.

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Section  : International
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