Taneja wins 2018 Desmond Elliott Prize

Preti Taneja has won the 2018 Desmond Elliott Prize for first-time novelists for We Are That Young (Galley Beggar Press).

A reworking of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, We Are That Young is set in Delhi and centres on the founder of a vast Indian corporation, who resigns and hands over his company to his elder daughters. Meanwhile, his youngest has run away to avoid marriage.

It was chosen from a shortlist of three that included How to Be Human (Paula Cocozza, Random House) and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Gail Honeyman, HarperCollins)

The judges described We Are That Young as ‘awe-inspiring’ in its ‘scope, ambition, skill and wisdom’. Chair of judges and author Sarah Perry said, after reading it, she and her fellow judges ‘sat together shaking our heads, saying, “If this is her first novel, what extraordinary work will come next?”’

Taneja receives a cash prize of £10,000 (A$17,880). For more information about the award, click here.

Category: International news