New Delhi, Oct 20 (PTI) Works of fiction originally written in Hindi, Tamil and Bengali have made it to the shortlist of five books for the 6th edition of the JCB Prize for Literature that was announced on Friday.

"The Nemesis" by Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by V Ramaswamy, “Fire Bird” by Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Janani Kannan, and “I Named my Sister Silence” by Manoj Rupda, translated from the Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar are among the books that have moved on to the next stage before the winner is announced on November 18.

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"The Secret of More" by Tejaswini Apte-Rahm and "Mansur" by Vikramajit Ram have also made it to the shortlist.

The prize carrying an amount of Rs 25 lakh is awarded each year to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer. It is touted to be the most expensive Indian award for writing.

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If the winning entry is a translation, the translator will be presented with an additional cash prize of Rs 10 lakh. Each of the five authors on the shortlist are awarded Rs one lakh, and if the shortlisted piece is a translation, the translator receives Rs 50,000.

The jury for the sixth edition of the prize includes author and translator Srinath Perur (chair), playwright Mahesh Dattani, writers Somak Ghoshal, Kavery Nambisan, and conservation journalist Swati Thiyagarajan.

Commenting on the shortlist, Perur said that “none of the books was easy to let go of”.

“In our shortlist meeting we reluctantly set out to eliminate five books from the longlist of ten. It turned out that every book on the longlist was a serious shortlist candidate for at least one jury member. But in the end there were exactly five books that all five of us wanted on the shortlist. None of the books was easy to let go of, and those that made the cut did so by the jury's unanimous decision,” he said.

The longlist for the prize had included “The East Indian” by Brinda Charry, “Everything the Light Touches” by Janice Pariat, “Manjhi's Mayhem” by Tanuj Solanki, “Simsim” by Geet Chaturvedi, and Bikram Sharma's “The Colony of Shadows” apart from the shortlisted works.

“The 2023 shortlist of five books for the JCB Prize for Literature beautifully captures the kaleidoscope of India's literary landscape. Each tale is a captivating dance of words—a testament to our rich literary pulse…As you delve into these books, you'll discover reflections of our shared human journey, and find myriad emotions and tales that resonate,” Mita Kapur, literary director, said in a statement.

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