An award-winning novelist who was named one of Time magazine’s β€œPerson to Watch” will be speaking at ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ on Tuesday, April 5.

Manil Suri will speak about the challenge of capturing the essence of his homeland in his novels.

β€œCapturing India” will begin at 3 p.m. in the Key West Ballroom of the Student Union. The event, organized by the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ Global Perspectives Office, is part of the 2010-2011 β€œIndia Speaker Series.” It is free and open to the public.

For Suri, a native of Mumbai, his novels represent an opportunity to showcase India’s complex and multilayered society.

His first novel, β€œThe Death of Vishnu,” won the 2002 Barnes and Noble Discover Prize and was a finalist for the 2002 Pen-Faulkner Award. His second novel, β€œThe Age of Shiva,” was released in 2008 in the United States, the U.K. and India.

He was named by Time magazine as a β€œPerson to Watch” in 2000 and received a Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction in 2004. Suri’s fiction has been translated into 24 languages.

In addition to the Global Perspectives Office, sponsors and partners include The India Program at ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½, The Anil and Chitra Deshpande India Program Endowed Fund, Lawrence J. Chastang and the Chastang Foundation, LarsonAllen LLP, the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ Global Peace and Security Studies Program, the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ Political Science Department, the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ International Services Center, ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ LIFE and the Global Connections Foundation.