Hanif picks up Commonwealth Writers Prize

Mohammed Hanif

A Case of Exploding Mangoes wins Best First Book

18 May 2009

Mohammed Hanif's debut novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes has won today (18 May 2009) the Best First Book Award at the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Hanif wins £5,000. His novel was also longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008.

The other regional contenders for the Best First Book Award were Sulaiman Addonia, The Consequences of Love (Chatto & Windus); Daniel Clay, Broken (HarperCollins); Joe Dunthorne, Submarine (Hamish Hamilton); and Murzban F Shroff, Breathless in Bombay (St Martin's Griffin, India). .

The two overall winners, chosen by an international panel of six judges, were announced on 16 May 2009 at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival.

The Man Booker Prize Fiction at its finest