This Indian novelist may bring India its second ever Nobel Prize in Literature, over a century after Rabindranath Tagore
In 1913, Rabindranath Tagore became the first and only Indian to win Nobel Prize in Literature for Gitanjali. He has held the title for 112 years. Now, after over a century, another Indian novelist is being touted among the frontrunners of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2025.
The Nobel season is already here and on Thursday, the Nobel Prize in Literature will be awarded to the best writer of this year. As excitement grows over the prestigious prize, the literary world is closely watching and making bets on their favourites.
The Swedish Academy on Thursday will reveal the name of the new Nobel laureate in literature, putting an end to speculations among readers and experts alike.
A golden chance for India
In 1913, Rabindranath Tagore became the first and only Indian to win Nobel Prize in Literature for Gitanjali. He has held the title for 112 years. Now, after over a century, another Indian novelist is being touted among the frontrunners of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2025.
Amitav Ghosh, a Bengali like Tagore, has been the talk of the literary world, thanks to his novels like The Shadow Lines and The Glass Palace.
According to Mathilde Montpetit, a PhD candidate at New York University, who is known for winning her bets for four straight years, Amitav Ghosh is set to win the prestigious award.
“Ghosh writes both fiction and non-fiction, has won a bunch of other major prizes (but not too many), and his perspective on colonialism, the Opium Wars and their contemporary impact is just the kind of stuff that the committee loves,” she wrote in a column for Berliner.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Montpetit said that the judges this year would focus on works that deal with climate change, which Ghosh has already explored in his books.
“I feel they might go climate change.”
According to Nicerodds, which compares betting odds from different bookmakers, Indian author Amitav Ghosh is currently placed at the top.
Who is Amitav Ghosh?
Winner of the Jnanpith award, India's highest literary honour, Amitav Ghosh is one of the most prominent contemporary writers of the country.
Born in Kolkata in 1956, Ghosh studied at The Doon School, Dehradun, and earned a doctorate in social anthropology at the University of Oxford.
He worked at news organisations before publishing his first novel, The Circle of Reason, in 1986.
Ghosh has addressed implications of the First Opium War in his Ibis trilogy, on which he worked from 2004 till 2015.
His historical fictions include The Shadow Lines (1988), The Calcutta Chromosome (1996), The Glass Palace (2000), The Hungry Tide (2004), and Gun Island (2019).
Who are the top contenders?
While Amitav Ghosh remains a top favourite among experts and readers alike, he is facing tough competition at the Nobel Prize in Literature 2025.
Other top contenders include China's Avant-Garde writer Can Xue, celebrated Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai and Mircea Cărtărescu of Romania, who writes both prose and poetry.
At 86, Australia's Gerald Murnane, who is known for experimental yet accessible writing, is one of the other top contenders.