Chinese writer Su Tong’s ‘Boat to Redemption’ wins Man Asian Literary Prize

Su’s ‘Redemption’ wins Man Asian Literary Prize

HONG KONG — The story of a Chinese Communist Party official who moves to a community of boat people after his revolutionary lineage is refuted has won the Man Asian Literary Prize, organizers said.

Su Tong was awarded $10,000 for his novel “The Boat to Redemption” at an announcement ceremony late Monday, organizers said in a statement.

Su’s novel is about a Chinese Communist Party official who’s expelled and exiled with his son after his false claim that he’s the offspring of a revolutionary martyr is exposed.

The three writers on the jury called the novel “a picaresque novel of immense charm.”

“It is also a political fable with an edge which is both comic and tragic, and a parable about the journeys we take in our lives, the distance between the boat our desires and the dry land of our achievement,” the judges said in the statement.

The judges were Ireland’s Colm Toibin, the Chinese-American author Gish Jen and India’s Pankaj Mishra.

Su is best known in the West for his short novel “Wives and Concubines,” the basis of Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s 1991 film, “Raise the Red Lantern.”

The other shortlisted novels were three Indian works — Omair Ahmad’s “Jimmy the Terrorist,” Siddharth Chowdhury’s “The Descartes Highlands” and Nitasha Kaul’s “Residue” — and Filipino author Eric Gamalinda’s “Day Scholar.”

Founded in 2007, the Man Asian Literary Prize is awarded annually to an Asian novel that has not been published in English yet. The title sponsor, investment company Man Group, also sponsors the annual Booker Prize.

The inaugural prize went to Chinese writer Jiang Rong’s “Wolf Totem.” Last year’s winner was Miguel Syjuco’s “Ilustrado.”