| Neel Mukherjee | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | FRSL |
| Birth Place: | Kolkata, West Bengal, India |
| Occupation: | Novelist |
| Language: | English |
| Citizenship: | India |
| Alma Mater: | Jadavpur University University College, Oxford Pembroke College, Cambridge |
| Notableworks: | A Life Apart, The Lives of Others, |
| Awards: | Crossword Book Award (2008) Encore Award (2015) |
Neel Mukherjee, FRSL (born 1970) is an Indian English-language writer based in London. He is the author of several critically acclaimed novels. He is also the brother of the television anchor and editor Udayan Mukherjee.
His first novel, Past Continuous, won the Vodafone-Crossword Book Award in 2008 and several more awards when republished in the U.K. in 2010 as A Life Apart. His second novel, The Lives of Others, was shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize and won the Encore Award. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018.
Mukherjee was educated at Don Bosco School, Park Circus, Kolkata. He studied English at Jadavpur University and then attended University College, Oxford, on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he studied English and graduated in 1992. He completed his Ph.D. at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
He reviews fiction for a variety of publication in the UK and US, including The Times and Time Asia.[1]
Describing the unexpected ease with which he wrote The Lives of Others, he said of the process:[2]
See main article: A Life Apart (novel). Published in India by Picador in January 2008 as Past Continuous. Republished in the U.K. by Constable in January 2010 as A Life Apart
"the saga of a lonely young gay man who flees a miserable life in Kolkata to the freedom of Britain"[1]
See main article: The Lives of Others (novel). Published in May 2014
Set in Calcutta in 1967. Idealistically motivated Supratik has become associated with extremist political activism. He disappears, leaving only a note. The life and fortunes of the family he has left behind take a disastrous turn, mirrored in the society around them.
The prologue was published in Granta 130.