LONDON: In 1983, Granta magazine’s list of the 20 most promising young British novelists under 40 ushered the likes of Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Pat Barker and Rose Tremain on to the national stage. It was a prescient corralling of the names who would go on to dominate British fiction over the years to come.
A decade later the exercise was repeated, and it was the turn of Jeanette Winterson and Alan Hollinghurst. In 2003, the list included Sarah Waters, Monica Ali and Zadie Smith.
Now the literary magazine has released its 2013 list, and for the first time there is a majority of women — 12 out of 20. It is also an extremely international list: the writers’ backgrounds — and storytelling interests — include Pakistan, China, Nigeria, Ghana, the US and Bangladesh. Names that may be fresh to many include David Szalay, author of three novels and hailed by the Guardian as a rising star; Taiye Selasi, whose first novel was published to great acclaim only last month; and Sunjeev Sahota. Mr Sahota studied maths, he works in marketing and finance; he lives in Leeds, completely out of the literary world.”
Sahota’s first novel, Ours are the Streets, was about the journey to radicalisation of a young British Muslim. His forthcoming work, said Freeman, “is like his ninth novel, it’s such a huge leap forward”.
Better-known names include Zadie Smith and Adam Thirwell, both of whom also appeared on the 2003 list. (Adam Mars-Jones, Kazuo Ishiguro and AL Kennedy, who was a judge this year, have previously managed the feat of being listed twice.)
Other established authors include Sarah Hall, who has already been shortlisted for the Man Booker; Kamila Shamsie, who is technically Pakistani but is likely to receive British citizenship in the coming months; and Ross Raisin, whose first novel, God’s Own Country, made him the Sunday Times young writer of the year in 2009.
By arrangement with the Guardian
