Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat presently posted in Pretoria as India`s Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa.Earlier who worked in Turkey, the United States, Ethiopia and Great Britain.
He was very happy with his career but in 2003 he tried to write a fiction.His emerged as a writer with his famous novel, Q and A. It is a story of penniless waiter Ram Mohammad Thomas of Mumbai who later becomes the biggest quiz show winner. This debut novel got sevaral Critical accolades in India and abroad.It became international bestseller and it has been translated into 32 languages all over the world. It was short listed for the Best First Book by the Commonwealth Writer`s Prize and it was awarded South Africa`s Exclusive Books Boeke Prize 2006. It was also given the Prix Grand Public award at Paris Book Fair in 2007. Film Four of the UK bought the movie rights and the name movie will be `Slum Dog Millionaire`. It will be directed by Danny Boyle.This novel was converted into drama by BBC radio and recentely aired on Radio 4. Harper Collins brought out the audio book, read by Kerry Shale, which won the Audie for best fiction audio book of the year.
Vikas Swarup got sevaral literary invitation from the Oxford Literary Festival, the Turin International Book Fair, the Auckland Writers` Conference, the Sydney Writers` Festival, the Kitab Festival in New Delhi, the St. Malo International Book & Film Festival in France and the `Words on Water` Literary Festival at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg for this book.
