Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 21 (IANS) Pakistan-based Kamila Shamsie’s novel “Burnt Shadows” has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for fiction 2009, its publishers said Tuesday,
A sweeping novel, “Burnt Shadows” is woven around some of the major historical events ranging from the 1945 Nagasaki bombing, the partition of India and Pakistan, the war in Afghanistan and the 9/11 blasts.

The story is one of disasters evaded, loyalties offered and repaid, and love rewarded and betrayed, Penguin Books-India said in a release.

The novel is published by Bloomsbury, which is represented in India by Penguin Books-India.

Shamsie, influenced by Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali, published her first novel, “In the City By the Sea” in 1998. She was honoured with the Prime Minister’s Award for Literature in Pakistan in 1999. Her second novel, “Salt and Saffron”, was published in 2000.

“Molly Fox’s Birthday”, a novel by Deirdre Madden, published by Faber and Faber, has also been shortlisted for the Orange Prize. The book will be available in India in July.

The Orange Prize was set up by a group of publishing professionals in 1996 to recognise the achievements of women novelists, whose works were often passed over by the major literary prizes.