Debut author wins Booker with searing portrait of Indian poverty

Aravind Adiga, a first-time author from India, won the Man Booker Prize last night with his novel The White Tiger, which was praised by the judges for presenting the "dark side of India" and likened to Shakespeare's Macbeth "with a delicious twist".

Adiga, 33, was the second-youngest writer in the 40 years of the competition to claim the £50,000 first prize. He was also the second novelist of Indian origin to win with a debut novel – as Arundhati Roy did in 1997 with The God Of Small Things.

Accepting his award in London, Adiga said the work came out of his journalistic assignments, which took him traveling across India to its northern regions. "I grew up in the south, which was very different culturally and economically to the places along the Ganges where I was travelling," he said. "For the first time, I met people like rickshaw-pullers, and it got me thinking about India in a different way. This book was an attempt to capture the voice of the men I met."

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Asked what he would spend the prize money on Adiga joked: "The first thing I'm going to do is find a bank where I can put it in."

Speaking about his desire to capture the underclass in India, which he said amounted to 400 million people, the author said he found them "similar to black Americans, with a sense of humour you would associate with the Jewish population in the ghettos". He added that he wanted to do this without sentimentality, and without presenting them as "merciless weaklings".

He also said he was determined to write about class divisions and iniquities – a topic he felt was not considered sexy in literature – and that the book's main character was partly inspired by a rickshaw-puller he met, who angrily said to him: "You've listened to me, but when you go back to Delhi, you'll forget about me." Adiga explained: "I did not forget about him".

The annual Booker prize, which goes to the best work of fiction by an author from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland, all but guarantees worldwide readership and a surge in book sales. Michael Portillo, the former Tory minister who chaired the panel of judges, said their decision was "emotionally draining" because they initially split their votes between Adiga and one other on the shortlist of six. The final selection meeting, he said, brought all of the male judges to tears.

He praised The White Tiger as an "extraordinary" work which painted a searing portrait of Indian poverty. Its plot revolves around Balram, a young man who grows up in a poor village and is beguiled by the corrupting charms of Delhi.

Mr Portillo said: "He is a hero who is a thorough-going villain. The story tells of the corruption that typifies Indian politics as the author see it. It is an interesting insight into a country that is becoming more and more important in global affairs. It does follow the story of Macbeth's ambition realised through murder. There's a delicious twist."

Adiga was born in Madras in 1974 and partly raised in Australia. He studied at Columbia University in New York and at Oxford, and has written for The Independent and for Time magazine. Now based in Mumbai, he is the third debutant to win the Booker, after Roy and DBC Pierre, who was first choice in 2003 for Vernon God Little.

The Booker judges had claimed the six shortlisted novels were great page-turners worthy of beating the likes of Salman Rushdie, and formed the most readable shortlist in years. Critics said the offerings by largely unknown authors were unremarkable.

Philip Hensher, the Independent columnist whose book The Northern Clemency was also a contender, said: "It was a huge honour to be on the shortlist and I'm very happy that a lot more readers have discovered my book."

The five other nominees won £2,500 each. Adiga's countryman Amitav Ghosh was nominated for Sea Of Poppies, while Australia's Steve Toltz, 36, was the other debutant with A Fraction Of The Whole. Irishman Sebastian Barry, shortlisted in 2005, made the cut again with The Secret Scripture.

Recommended reading: Man Booker shortlist

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant

The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher

A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz