Manil Suri(born July 1959) is an Indian-American mathematician and writer of a trilogy of novels all named for Hindu gods. His first novel,The Death of Vishnu(2001), which was long-listed for the 2001Booker Prize,short-listed for the 2002PEN/Faulkner Awardand won theBarnes & NobleDiscover Prize that year. Since then, he has published two more novels,The Age of Shiva(2008) andThe City of Devi(2013), completing the trilogy.
Manil Suri | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 1959 (age 65) Bombay,India |
| Occupation | Novelist, mathematician |
| Nationality | Indian, American |
| Education | University of Bombay Carnegie Mellon University(PhD) |
| Website | |
| manilsuri | |
Biography
editSuri was born in Bombay, the son of R.L. Suri,[1]aBollywoodmusic director,and Prem Suri, a schoolteacher. He attended theUniversity of Bombaybefore moving to theUnited States,where he attendedCarnegie Mellon University.[2]He received a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1983, and became a mathematics professor atUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore County.Suri began writing short stories in the 1980s during his spare time, but none were published. In 1995 he began writingThe Death of Vishnu,a novel about social and religious tensions in India taking place in an apartment building in contemporary Mumbai. An excerpt, "The Seven Circles", appeared inThe New Yorkerand the novel was published in 2001, becoming an international bestseller. Suri received a six-figure advance as a result of a bidding war between publishing houses, ultimately won byW.W. Norton.In 2002, Suri won thePEN/Robert W. Bingham PrizeforThe Death of Vishnu.His second novel,The Age of Shiva(2008), was listed as one of the best books of the decade by About.com.[3]His third novel,The City of Devi(2013), was ranked number 12 in the50 essential works of LGBT fictionlist by Flavorwire.[4]
Suri was planning to write atrilogyof novels with titles featuring the threeHindugodsBrahma,VishnuandShiva.The second book in the trilogy,The Age of Shiva,was published in 2008, withThe Birth of Brahmaslated as the third. This third novel ended up being based on Devi (the Mother Goddess) instead, with the titleThe City of Devi.[5]
In December 2013, Suri won the "Bad Sex in Fiction" prize for the climactic sex scene inThe City of Devi.[6]However, a reviewer in theWall Street Journalpraised the sex writing in the book,[5]as did a reviewer inThe Times Literary Supplement,who also commented that Suri "admirably" handles the strands of "sex, mythology and global politics".[7]
Suri has written an essay about growing up gay in India in the journalGranta[8]and has published op-eds about gay issues in theNew York Times[9][10]and theWashington Post.[11]
Books
edit- The Death of Vishnu:A Novel(W. W. Norton, 2001)
- The Age of Shiva: A Novel(W. W. Norton, 2008)
- The City of Devi:A Novel(W. W. Norton, 2013)
- The Big Bang of Numbers: How to Build the Universe Using Only Math:(W.W. Norton, 2022)
Further reading
edit- Sipics, Michele (12 April 2008)."Second Novel in Print, Mathematician Manil Suri Ponders his Overlapping Careers".SIAM News.SIAM.Archived fromthe originalon 15 June 2011.Retrieved27 September2009.
- Dreifus, Claudia(17 June 2008)."Professor Finds the Art in Both Numbers and Letters".New York Times.Retrieved27 September2009.
- James, Caryn (24 February 2008)."A Fire in the Heart".New York Times.Retrieved27 September2009.
- Gorra, Michael (28 January 2001)."The God on the Landing".New York Times.Retrieved27 September2009.
- Brians, Paul (2003)."Manil Suri: The Death of Vishnu (2001)".Modern South Asian literature in English.Greenwood Publishing Group.ISBN978-0-313-32011-8.
- Sanga, Jaina C. (2003)."Manil Suri (1959 - )".South Asian novelists in English: an A-to-Z guide.Greenwood Publishing Group.ISBN0-313-31885-9.
Notes
edit- ^Pondering Death of Vishnu behind Mahalaxmi temple[dead link]
- ^Manil Suri: Doing the Numbers
- ^"Best Books of the Decade (2000-2009)".Archived fromthe originalon 16 August 2010.Retrieved11 January2014.
- ^Coates, Tyler (21 August 2013)."50 Essential Works of LGBT Fiction".Flavorwire. Archived fromthe originalon 11 January 2014.Retrieved3 March2014.
- ^abSacks, Sam (4 February 2013),"Bollywood Ending: A romping novel in which a woman searches Mumbai for her missing husband after the city is thrown into chaos by a dirty-bomb attack",Book Review: The City of Devi,Wall Street Journal.
- ^"Bad Sex in Fiction: Manil Suri scoops 2013 award".BBC Online.4 December 2013.Retrieved3 March2014.
- ^Basu, Chitralekha (7 June 2013). "Rev. of Sura,The City of Devi".The Times Literary Supplement.
- ^How to be gay and Indian
- ^The Court's Global Message on DOMA
- ^Suri, Manil (4 September 2015)."Why Is Science So Straight?".The New York Times.
- ^Court Ruling Ignores India's Rich History of Diversity
External links
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