ARUNDHATI ROY (1961-20...)

1. She made her debut with her novel: "The God of Small Things" which won her the Booker Prize in 1997, besides a handful amount running into crores as royalty for less than four hundred pages that comprise the said novel.

2. (i) Mrs. Roy belongs to Kerala like Kamala Das, who while congratulating the young novelist, said that the unexpectedly successful venture in fiction was a "freak." (ii) Mrs. Roy herself admitted her novel might not be "better" than the other novels shortlisted but it was certainly "luckier."

3. The Booker citation praised the novel, inter alia, for its "linguistic inventiveness."

4. Many critics have appreciated its poetic prose.

5. Written in a slow-moving new style of modern prose narrative in the modern somewhat fluctuating technique, the work is essentially a new phenomenon on the Indian fictional horizon which may not be easily imitated, as Roy herself admits that she spent more than four and a half years on it and the novel was completed with the willing and active cooperation of the members of her family who helped her in several ways, like typing out the manuscript, etc

6. Several reviews regarding the book have appeared in journals and newspapers. One of the critical works on it is 'The Mind and the Art of Arundhati Roy" by A. P. Sharma (Published by the Minerva Press).

She is best known for her first novel The God of Small Things which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. She was also awarded Sydney Peace Prize in 2004.

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