Books
Jaspreet Singh's CHEF Short-listed for The 2009 Commonwealth Best Book Prize
by PETER SCOWEN
Sikh-Canadian Jaspreet Singh's new novel Chef (Vehicule Press) has been short-listed for Best Book of the Year in the five-person shortlist for the Canada and Caribbean regional stretch of the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
The other Canadian nominees for Best Book are:
Marina Endicott, Good to a Fault (Freehand Books)
Kenneth J. Harvey, Blackstrap Hawco (Random House Canada)
Nino Ricci, The Origin of Species (Doubleday Canada)
Fred Stenson, The Great Karoo (Doubleday Canada)
The fifth nominee is Jacob Ross of Grenada for Pynter Bender (Fourth Estate)
The winners for Best Book from Canada and the Caribbean will be announced March 11 and will take home 1,000 U.K. pounds each.
They then go on to vie for the 10,000 U.K. pound prize against regional winners from other parts of the former Commonwealth (South Africa; Europe and South Asia; Southeast Asia and the Pacific), which will be announced in New Zealand on May 16.
They'll be up against writers such as Salman Rushdie and Aravind Adiga.
Chef is a compelling look at the India-Pakistan conflict from atop Siachen Glacier, the coldest and highest battlefield in the world.
"This is courageous writing that asks, and faces the impossibility of one-way answers to questions of loyalty, love, ownership, and death." – Daphene Marlatt
"Chef is a subtle, intricate and beautiful book." – P.K. Page
Jaspreet Singh's stories have appeared in Walrus, Arts Etc, Cricket Anthology, and Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope. He has won critical acclaim for Seventeen Tomatoes, a collection of linked short stories, which was awarded the 2004 McAuslan First Book Prize and has been translated into Spanish and Punjabi.
He is currently writer-in-residence at the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Canada.
Jaspreet Singh's Chef was selected sikhchic.com's Book of the Month for September 2008. For the book review of Chef by Manjyot Kaur, please go to this site's Books Section, or click on: http://sikhchic.com/article-detail.php?id=570&cat=11
[Courtesy: The Globe & Mail and The Vehicule Press]
February 18, 2009
Conversation about this article
1: Raj (Canada), February 20, 2009, 11:07 PM.
Impressive! I always worried that we don't have mature writers in English in our community. But, no more. Proud of you, Jaspreet Singh!
2: Partap Singh (Delhi, India), March 03, 2009, 1:57 AM.
A well-balanced book on army life and what goes on behind the scene. The book also depicts an intersting life-style full of hardships, as visualized by the author, of soldiers working in the world's highest battlefield - the Sachin Glacier. I equally enjoyed reading of the life of those who serve in the background in full support of their army seniors, with the goal of accomplishing the task at hand. An impressive writing with thought-provoking clarity. God bless Jaspreet Singh. We wish him all the success.