| Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1977 Bombay, India |
| Occupation | Novelist, photographer |
Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi is an Indian novelist and photographer. He lives in Bombay and is a contributor to Time and other publications.[1]
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Shanghvi was born in Bombay in 1977. He graduated from the University of Westminster (MA, Distinction), where he studied photography as part of his degree. His second masters, in mass communications, was from San Jose State University (MS, Distinction).
His debut novel, The Last Song of Dusk won the Betty Trask Award in the UK, the Grinzane Cavour Prize in Italy, and was nominated for the IMPAC Prize. Translated into 16 languages, The Last Song of Dusk was an international bestseller. John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil said of the book: "Dazzling . . . reminded me of Truman Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms".
Shanghvi’s second novel, The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay is based on the Jessica Lal murder case.[2] The novel was short-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2008. Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, praised the book saying: "Siddharth Shanghvi's literary forebears are Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, and E. M. Forster. He is also an original, a major storyteller who beguiles us into a world of illusion and bestows us with a sharp-eyed lens into the heart. The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay is a triumph".[3] In 2009, Shanghvi revealed in an interview with Mid Day that the book would be his last: "I have always wanted to be a writer. But now I can see that the passion is fading away. Actually, I don't want to write anymore."[4]
After his father was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, Shanghvi turned to photography.[5] His photography series The House Next Door, opened at Galleri Kontrast in Stockholm in 2010. In early 2011 it was shown at the Matthieu Foss Gallery, Bombay[5] and later at Delhi’s eponymous Vadehra Art Gallery. Referring to this body of work Salman Rushdie (author of Midnight's Children) said, "These pictures touched me deeply. They are at once intimate and clear-sightedly objective, precise and affectionate. The quietness of their world is the silence of memory and sorrow, but there is, too, considerable artistry in the composition, and a joy taken in detail, and character, and place."