Naeem Murr wins C'wealth Prize

The Perfect Man, a novel by Naeem Murr about an abandoned Anglo-Indian child, has won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award for Europe and South Asia Region.

Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men was chosen for the Best First Book Award.

In Murr's book, Rajiv Travers, the child of an Indian mother and English father is abandoned, first to relatives in London and later to the care of his uncle's mistress, Ruth Winters, who lives in a small American town.

Parallels can be drawn between the novel's character and Murr's own life, as he was born and raised in London and has lived in the USA since 1987. He is of Lebanese and Irish parentage.

Murr has published a number of prize-winning stories and novels. His critically acclaimed first novel The Boy was published in 1998 and has been translated into six languages.

The prizewinners were announced at the London Head Quarters of the Macquarie Bank Group, whose philanthropic arm, the Macquarie Foundation, has provided support for the prize.

Each author wins 1,000 pounds and goes into the next stage of the competition to find the overall Commonwealth Best Book and Best First Book.

"A characteristic of this year's books was their fascination with intersecting stories, when Bollywood meets Enid Blyton or Scheherazade clashes with famous football triumphs. Cultures meet and sensibilities shift," said Angela Smith, Chair of Judges.

India's Vikram Chandra (Sacred Games) was among the seven short-listed for the Best Book Award from Europe and South Asia while another Indian Gautam Malkani (Londonstani) was among the seven short-listed for the Best First Book Award from Europe and South Asia.

Both regional winners now enter the final stage of the 21st Commonwealth Writers Prize, the international award for outstanding fiction, which will be decided by a distinguished pan-Commonwealth panel in Jamaica and announced at the Calabash Literary Festival on May 27, 2007.

They join other regional winners from Africa, Canada and the Caribbean, and South East Asia and South Pacific.

Ten thousand pounds will be awarded to the author of the overall best Book, and 5,000 pounds to the author of Best First Book.