First-time Indian novelist Aravind Adiga on Tuesday won the Man Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards, with "The White Tiger". At 34, Adiga was the youngest of the finalists for the literary prize. The chairman of the judges, Michael Portillo, said the book was an impressive work. "The novel is in many ways perfect. It is quite difficult to find any structural flaws with it," he said. “What sets this one apart was it's originality,” Portillo told reporters at a gala dinner in London announcing the winner. “For many of us this was entirely new territory -- the dark side of India. Adiga, who lives in Mumbai, has been accused of painting a negative picture modern India and its huge underclass but Adiga said the novel was meant to be provocative. “(The protagonist) is a member of the invisible Indian underclass -- one of the millions of poor Indians who have been bypassed by the economic boom,” he told Reuters before the Booker Prize winner was announced. He receives a cheque for 50,000 pounds ($88,000) and can expect not only overnight literary fame but also a significant spike in book sales in the runup to Christmas. "It's not a book that's meant to ingratiate itself with anyone," Adiga told the British Broadcasting Corp. before the prize was announced. "The tone of it was meant to be provocative and even a bit nasty at times. It's meant to get people thinking."
