Author of the week

Vikram Seth

(Book in the Library: A Suitable Boy)

Born in 1952 in Calcutta, India, Vikram Seth was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Stanford University and Nanjing University. He has travelled widely and lived in Britain, California, India and China. His first novel, The Golden Gate: A Novel in VerseA Suitable Boy (1993), won the WH Smith Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book). Set in India in the early 1950s, it is the story of a young girl, Lata, and her search for a husband. An Equal Music (1999), is the story of a violinist haunted by the memory of a former lover.

Vikram Seth is also the author of a travel book, From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983), an account of a journey through Tibet, China and Nepal that won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and a libretto, Arion and the Dolphin: A Libretto (1994), which was performed at the English National Opera in June 1994, with music by Alec Roth. His poetry includes Mappings (1980), The Humble Administrator’s Garden (1985), winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia), and All You Who Sleep Tonight: Poems (1990). His children’s book, Beastly Tales from Here and There (1992), consists of ten stories about animals told in verse. (1986), describes the experiences of a group of friends living in California. His acclaimed epic of Indian life,

Vikram Seth’s latest work is Two Lives (2005), a memoir of the marriage of his great uncle and aunt.

Bibliography

Mappings Writer’s Workshop (Calcutta) (re-issued Viking 1994), 1980

From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet Chatto & Windus, 1983

The Humble Administrator’s Garden Carcanet, 1985

The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse Faber and Faber, 1986

All You Who Sleep Tonight: Poems Faber and Faber, 1990

Beastly Tales from Here and There (illustrated by Ravi Shankar, re-issued Phoenix House 2002) Phoenix House, 1992

Three Chinese Poets: Translations of Poems by Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu Faber and Faber, 1992

A Suitable Boy Phoenix House, 1993

Arion and the Dolphin: A Libretto Phoenix House, 1994

An Equal Music Phoenix House, 1999

Two Lives Time Warner, 2005

Prizes and awards

1983 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet

1985 Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia) The Humble Administrator’s Garden

1993 Irish Times International Fiction Prize (shortlist) A Suitable Boy

1994 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book) A Suitable Boy

1994 WH Smith Literary Award A Suitable Boy

2001 EMMA (BT Ethnic and Multicultural Media Award) for Best Book/NovelAn Equal Music

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