Kolkata-born writer Neel Mukherjee’s “The Lives of Others” has won the UK’s Encore Award for the best second novel.
The 10,000 pounds prize, first awarded in 1990, fills a niche in the catalogue of literary prizes by celebrating the achievement of outstanding second novels, often neglected in comparison to the attention given to promising first books.
“We were immensely impressed by the ambition and depth of Neel Mukherjee’s second novel, in which a suburban house in 1960s Calcutta comes to reflect the political and social convulsions of an entire society,” Alex Clark, chair of the Encore Judges, said.