Indian literature has come a long way since the days of R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, and many others like Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie, and Arundhati Roy, who have left a lasting mark on the culture of Indo-Anglian literature. Among the new generation of modern and post-modern writers, Sarita Mandanna is a striking example.
Her Early Years and Initial Work
Sarita Mandanna was born in Coorg, a beautiful coffee plantation and tourism district in the state of Karnataka. She was born in a family of book lovers who unconsciously motivated her to become an author as she is now.
In Sarita’s own words, she heard myriad stories from her maternal grandfather, which laid the foundation for her interest in stories. Then there was her paternal grandfather, who had a great interest in books. But it was Sarita’s mother’s passion that led her into the world of books, which eventually translated into what we know as her prowess in writing.
Sarita worked in Hong Kong for some time and then moved to the US. She earned her postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management and then an MBA from Wharton Business School, Pennsylvania. She currently works as a private equity professional for Equifin Capital and holds the post of Vice President.
Her Work and Recognition
Sarita Mandanna is very new to the world of writing. She is an infant in the coruscant constellation of Indo-Anglian litterateurs. She has written one novel till now, named ‘Tiger Hills’. The novel spans two centuries, from the 1800s to the 20th century, in a coffee plantation in Coorg, Karnataka.
The book was immediately recognized as the work of a prodigy by the publisher Penguin India.
According to sources, she received the highest advance payment Penguin India has paid to a debutant. The figure is quoted at around Rs. 3.5 million. She stands very close to Amitav Ghosh, who bagged Rs. 4.4 million for his trilogy. Her book was also compared to all-time classics, and it was widely noted that Sarita’s novel was like a fusion of ‘The Thorn Birds’ and ‘Gone with the Wind’.
In her life and consequently in her book, she constructed a link between her bustling life in New York and her life as a recluse in Coorg. Sarita has also won the recently introduced award in the field of literature, the Man Asian Literary Prize.
Her work has been so well received that Sarita has been labelled one of the talents to watch in the current crop of Indian writers.
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