Indian-origin writer & translator Padma Viswanathan in Booker shortlist

LONDON: Indian-origin writer and translator Padma Viswanathan has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026 for her English translation of Ana Paula Maia's novel On Earth As It Is Beneath.

The six-book shortlist, chaired by Natasha Brown and including Nilanjana S. Roy, features works exploring historical themes like 1930s Taiwan, Nazi Germany, and Iran's 1979 Revolution.

The shortlisted novel is a horror story set in a penal colony where inmates are hunted during full moons. Viswanathan credits Lakshmi Holmström's anthology The Inner Courtyard as an early influence and has also been inspired by Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. (ANI)

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