First song of triumph

Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi’s debut novel The Last Song of Dusk has been awarded Italy’s most coveted Grinzane Cavour Prize 2005 for Young New Authors.

A love story set in the 1920s’ India, 26-year-old Shanghvi’s novel is a savvy take on sexual desire, karma, and the healing power of music. It tells the story of four extraordinary lives. Of Anuradha Gandharva, gifted with astonishing beauty and magical songs; of her husband, Vardhmaan, struggling with secret losses; of Nandini, a deviously alluring artist, with a penchant for panthers and walking on water; and of Shloka, the Gandharvas’ delicate, disturbingly silent child.

Shanghvi, who holds an MA in international journalism and an MS in mass communications, spent his formative years in a tree house in his backyard in Bombay. He now divides his time between India and California. Shanghvi is also a Betty Trask Award winner for The Last Song of Dusk.

The Grinzane Cavour Prize has also been won by Rupa Bajwa for her debut novel The Sari Shop.

This award, established in 1982, is one of the most famous Italian prizes for fiction. It has been awarded to some of the most important writers in the world such as Jorge Amado, Mario Vargas Llosa, José Saramago, Günter Grass, Julien Green, Nadine Gordimer, Doris Lessing, Wole Soyinka, Carlos Fuentes, Czeslaw Milosz, Bohumil Hrabal, Yves Bonnefoy, J.M. Coetzee and V.S. Naipaul. The Prize consists of a sum of 5000 euros. The prize-giving ceremony will be held at the Grinzane Cavour Castle, 40 km from Turin, Italy, on June 18.

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