An account of Sri Lanka’s civil war by Indian author Samanth Subramanium has been longlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize, one of United Kingdom’s most prestigious award for non-fiction.

Subramanium’s book “This Divided Island” is among the 12 books long-listed for the 20,000 pounds worth prize whose shortlist will be announced in October during the London Literature Festival and the winner in November, publishers Penguin Random House said in a statement today.

“The book tracks the rise of militant Buddhism, driven by monk politicians who hold extraordinary, extreme opinions,” publishers said.

Driven by curiosity about the scars and legacies of a long war, Subramanian moved to Sri Lanka in 2011 and over the next year, he travelled across the island, and through Sri Lankan communities living overseas, talking to hundreds of people about how their lives were twisted out of shape by the war.
The prize is open to authors of all non-fiction books in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography autobiography and the arts.

Subramanium, a Delhi-based journalist won the 2010 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize for his first book of narrative non-fiction “Following Fish: Travels around the Indian Coast”, which was also shortlisted for the 2013 Andre Simon Prize.

This year’s judging panel, chaired by the Pulitzer prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum also longlisted the books “Guantanamo Diary” by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, “Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life by Jonathan Bate”, “Black Earth” by Tim Snyder, “Fighters in the Shadows by Robert Gildea”, “The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq” by Emma Sky.

“Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia” by Peter Pomerantsev, “The Four Dimensional Human” by Laurence Scott, “Landmarks” by Robert McFarlane, “The Planet Remade” by Oliver Morton, “ Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism” by Steve Silberman and “The Four-Dimensional Human” by Laurence Scott complete the shortlist.

Source: The List