Manu Joseph's debut novel SERIOUS MEN is on the shortlist for the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize. Founded in 2007 and sponsored by the Man Group plc, the Man Asian Prize is a leading international literary award given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English. The shortlist features writers from Japan, China and India, including Bi Feiyu, Tabish Khair, Yoko Ogawa, and Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe. The $30,000 prize will be awarded on 17 March in Hong Kong.

SERIOUS MEN has received wide acclaim since its publication in the UK by John Murray in 2010. It is the winner of the Hindu Best Fiction Award 2010, listed as one of Huffington Post's Best Books 2010, chosen by The Telegraph as one of their 2010 'First Novels to Savour' and was a New York Times 'Editor's Choice'. Most recently it has also been shortlisted for the Regional Commonwealth Writers First Book Prize.

Rights have been sold in Canada (HarperCollins), India (HarperCollins), US (W.W. Norton), Denmark (Thaning & Appel), France (Phillipe Rey), Germany (Klett Cotta), Holland (Podium), Italy (Edizioni Dedalo), Serbia (Laguna) and Spain (El Aleph).

Praise for SERIOUS MEN:

'The finest comic novelists know that a small world can illuminate a culture and an age. With this funny-sad debut, Joseph does just that for surging, fractious India.' -- Boyd Tonkin, Independent

'Manu Joseph shows how petty jealousies in India can motivate and divide as surely as major societal differences. His skills as a writer are tremendous - he invests even the most ordinary interactions with keenly observed human quirks, and almost every sentence is a joy to read for its ingeniously constructed language. This is a compellingly entertaining novel - witty, subversive, extraordinarily perceptive, deliciously wicked.' -- Manil Suri, author of THE DEATH OF VISHNU

'This ambitious debut cleverly weaves diverging plots of love, knowledge, class, and ambition…Joseph's finely portrayed characters exude wit and warmth in this engaging and introspective tale.'-- Leah Strauss, Booklist