Indian-American writer’s winning book, Family Life, which took him 13 years to complete, is praised by head judge as ‘a masterful novel of distilled complexity’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Indian-American writer Akhil Sharma has been named winner of the second Folio prize for fiction for a novel which took him 13 long and painful years to complete, charting one emigrant family’s heartwrenching search for the American dream.

Writing it, he admitted after receiving the £40,000 prize, was a frustrating, difficult challenge, often “like chewing stones” with around nine wasted years when it did not go well. “I’m glad the book exists, I just wish I hadn’t been the guy who wrote it,” he said.

Sharma won the prize for his second novel, Family Life, an autobiographical work which tells the story of a young boy Ajay and his family who emigrate from Delhi to New York in search of a better life. All is turned upside down when Ajay’s older brother has a dreadful swimming pool accident and needs round-the-clock care from then on.

Sharma, a former investment banker, said he was professionally happy the book existed and that people were reading the story of care givers but he admitted he thought about giving up on a regular basis. He stuck with it: “I couldn’t bear the idea of having spent all those years and then nothing good having come out of it.

“In the end I feel the book itself is good, it does certain things that are artistically impressive so I feel good about that.”

His feelings on winning were mixed and the first emotion he felt was shame because compared to his late brother “I have received too much luck.”

Parts of the writing process were fun, he said, but much of it was not. “I’m 43. I started writing this when I was 30 so I spent my thirties writing this thing ... I really feel like I shattered my youth.”

William Fiennes, who chaired the judges, praised the novel, currently a bestseller in the US, as “lucid, compassionate, quietly funny”.

He added: “Family Life is a masterful novel of distilled complexity: about catastrophe and survival; attachment and independence; the tension between selfishness and responsibility.

“We loved its deceptive simplicity and rare warmth ... This is a work of art that expands with each re-reading and a novel that will endure.”

Folio prize shortlist shows literary novel far from dead, says judge Read more

It was chosen from a shortlist of eight books which included what was the bookmakers’ favourite for the prize, Ali Smith’s novel How To Be Both.

Andrew Kidd, the literary agent who co-founded the Folio prize, said: “In this second year of the prize our five judges have again lived up to every expectation, selecting from a glorious shortlist a heartbreaking and funny novel whose astonishing power is achieved in constantly surprising ways.”

He said the novel was already a huge success in the US. “We are delighted that the Folio prize will now help it to find many more readers, both in the UK and around the world.”

Sharma was presented with the prize, which comes with a cheque for £40,000, at a ceremony in King’s Cross, London, on Monday.

The humorist David Sedaris has called the book “outstanding”. “Every page is alive and surprising, proof of his huge, unique talent.”

The prize, sponsored by the Folio Society, was created last year with the aim of celebrating the year’s best English-language fiction, regardless of form, genre and geography.



Its first winner was the American short story writer George Saunders for his collection Tenth of December.

The Folio was born out of frustration at perceived weaknesses of the Man Booker prize and anger at what was described as the “dumbed down” shortlist of 2011. One particular complaint was that it continued to bar US writers, an issue subsequently addressed by opening up the Booker to all novelists writing in the English language.



In a crowded literary prize calendar the Folio has tried hard to show its distinctiveness. It is, for example, a prize decided by writers and critics only, drawn by lots from an academy of 234 people who are “immersed in the world of books”. Unusually, it also lists the books that did not make the shortlist by revealing the 80 titles that were read by judges.

The other shortlisted candidates were 10:04 by Ben Lerner, All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews, Dept of Speculation by Jenny Offill, Dust by Adhiambo Owuor, Nora Webster by Colm Toibin, and Outline by Rachel Cusk.

The judging panel chaired by Fiennes consisted of Observer writer Rachel Cooke and writers Mohsin Hamid, AM Homes, and Deborah Levy.