Calcutta

"I am an Indian author of French language, rewarded by The French Academy. In 1990, i received West Bengal's Best Young Poet Award, and moved to Paris in 2001. I got a M.Phil degree in French linguistics and literature from the Sorbonne University and published my first novel Fenêtre sur l'abîme. In 2008, In 2011, my second novel, Assommons les pauvres!, was published at Éditions de l'Olivier and was acclaimed by the critics, got the Valery-Larbaud award 2012, Populiste award 2011, was in the short list of the Renaudot Award, had its title inspired by the eponymous poem in prose of Charles Baudelaire : Assommons les Pauvres! (Knock out all the poors!). The central character/narrator of this novel, with a strong resemblance with myself, was brutally confronted by the misery, both material and intellectual, of my fellow people, migrating in Europe for a better life. In my latest novel Calcutta, published in January 2014, I went down the memory lane of a Bengali family to describe the violent political history of West Bengal. It is rewarded by le Prix du Rayonnement de la langue et de la littérature françaises de L'Académie Française et le Grand Prix du Roman de la Société des Gens de Lettres. I consider that my homeland is no longer India, nor even France, but the French language." http://paris-sorbonne.academia.edu/ShumonaSinha.