A former student of Presidency College has been nominated for the Man Booker Prize 2015. Writer-publisher Anuradha Roy’s third novel, Sleeping on Jupiter, was named among 13 novels longlisted for the prestigious £50,000 (around Rs 50 lakh) prize on Wednesday.

“It feels surreal. I had never expected it; didn’t know the longlist was being announced today until my publisher in Britain told me I was on it a couple of hours ago,” Roy, who has been living mostly in Ranikhet for the past 15 years, told Metro from Delhi.

Sleeping on Jupiter is published by MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus, in the UK and by Hachette in India.

The 48-year-old writer was born in Calcutta and had attended South Point School till she was about seven. She also spent some years in Sikkim, Ranchi and Hyderabad. She returned to Calcutta to complete her Plus 2 at St. Thomas’ Girls’ School, Kidderpore, and went to Presidency College, graduating in English in 1989.

Thereafter, she went to Cambridge University on a scholarship.

“Presidency meant College Street and lots of Coffee Housing and buying books on loan from the understanding shopkeepers in Boi Para. They were so sympathetic to our perpetually broke condition. I remember Presidency with great affection because I made friends there who are still my closest friends and I had some wonderful teachers,” she said.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Samhita Chakraborty / Thursday – July 30th, 2015