Shortlisted for the £50,000 Man Booker Prize this year are two Indian writers - Amitav Ghosh and Aravind Adiga. But, the non-inclusion of Salman Rushdie’s name has left both the critics and readers perplexed, particularly when the controversial writer’s ‘Enchantress of Florence’ was being considered a front runner.
Among some other well known writers not included are two favourites, namely, Joseph O’Neill and Mohammed Hanif, a London-based Pakistani journalist. While the former won great acclamation for his ‘Netherland’, about post-9/11 New York and cricket; the latter’s debut novel – ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’ – is a blazing political satire that has been quite well-received by the critics.
It was recently reported in a British daily that the Booker award winner ‘Aravind Adiga’ sacked his agent who helped him in winning the august prize. The 34 year old Aravind recently bagged the most coveted award in literary arena for his debut book, 'The White Tiger'. 
It was a time to rejoice for the young Indian who won the prestigious 'Man Booker Prize 2008' for his maiden literary work, "The White Tiger". Aravind Adiga, the 33 year old was the youngest of the contenders amongst the six shortlisted for the award. Besides him, an Australian, Steve Toltz was also chosen for his first work in literary arena.
London, Sept 9 Two Indian writers are among the six shortlisted novelists for the 2008 Booker Prize, according to the list of names which was released on Tuesday.
