We don’t usually pay much attention to the big prizes here at Melville House, because it’s always seemed a tad silly to us to give prizes to literature, plus it’s been our experience that the big prizes go to the big houses (often enough, because little houses like us can’t afford the entrance fees).  But we decided to immediately eat our attitude last October when (as per this press release) three of our books make the longlist for the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize (which, by the way, had no entry fee): Mahmoud Dowlatabadi‘s The Colonel and Tarun Tejpal‘s The Valley of Masks, both forthcoming, and Banana Yoshimoto‘s The Lake.

Now, three months later, the shortlist has been announced, and it looks like we can’t cop our old attittude back yet, as Banana Yoshimoto made the shortlist. Congrats to her and the other finalists, who are, as per the press release:

• Jamal Ahmad, Pakistan - The Wandering Falcon 
• Jahnavi Barua, India - Rebirth
• Rahul Bhattacharya, India – The Sly Company of People Who Care
• Amitav Ghosh, India – River of Smoke
• Kyng-Sook Shin, South Korea – Please Look After Mom
• Yan Lianke, China – Dream of Ding Village
• Banana Yoshimoto, Japan – The Lake