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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2018}}
{{Infobox writer 
| name = Manil Suri
| image = Manil_Suri,_author_photo_by_Jose_Villarrubia.jpg
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| birth_date = July 1959
| birth_place = Bombay, India
| death_date =
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| occupation = Novelist, mathematician
| nationality = Indian, American
| period =
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| influenced =
| signature =
| website = {{URL|manilsuri.com}}
}}

'''Manil Suri''' (born July 1959) is an Indian-American mathematician and writer of a trilogy of novels all named for Hindu gods. His first novel, ''[[The Death of Vishnu]]'' (2001), which was long-listed for the 2001 [[Booker Prize]], short-listed for the 2002 [[PEN/Faulkner Award]] and won the [[Barnes & Noble]] Discover Prize that year. Since then, he has published two more novels, ''The Age of Shiva'' (2008) and ''The City of Devi'' (2013), completing the trilogy.

==Biography==
Suri was born in Bombay, the son of R.L. Suri,<ref>[http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=12759 Pondering Death of Vishnu behind Mahalaxmi temple]</ref> a [[Bollywood]] [[music director]], and Prem Suri, a schoolteacher. He attended the [[University of Bombay]] before moving to the [[United States]], where he attended [[Carnegie Mellon University]].<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/05/AR2009020503171.html Manil Suri: Doing the Numbers]</ref> He received a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1983, and became a mathematics professor at [[University of Maryland, Baltimore County]]. Suri began writing short stories in the 1980s during his spare time, but none were published. In 1995 he began writing ''The Death of Vishnu'', a novel about social and religious tensions in India taking place in an apartment building in contemporary Mumbai. An excerpt, "The Seven Circles", appeared in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' and the novel was published in 2001, becoming an international bestseller. Suri received a six-figure advance as a result of a bidding war between publishing houses, ultimately won by [[W.W. Norton]]. In 2002, Suri won the [[PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize]] for ''The Death of Vishnu''. His second novel, ''The Age of Shiva'' (2008), was listed as one of the best books of the decade by About.com.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/readinglists/tp/best-of-the-decade-2000-2009.htm |title=Best Books of the Decade (2000-2009) |access-date=11 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100816175825/http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/readinglists/tp/best-of-the-decade-2000-2009.htm |archive-date=16 August 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His third novel, ''The City of Devi'' (2013), was ranked number 12 in the ''50 essential works of LGBT fiction'' list by Flavorwire.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://flavorwire.com/409723/50-essential-works-of-lgbt-fiction/12/|title=50 Essential Works of LGBT Fiction|last=Coates|first=Tyler|date=21 August 2013|publisher=Flavorwire|access-date=3 March 2014}}</ref>

Suri was planning to write a [[trilogy]] of novels with titles featuring the three [[Hinduism|Hindu]] gods [[Brahma]], [[Vishnu]] and [[Shiva]]. The second book in the trilogy, ''The Age of Shiva'', was published in 2008, with ''The Birth of Brahma'' slated as the third. This third novel ended up being based on Devi (the Mother Goddess) instead, with the title ''The City of Devi.''<ref name="sacks">{{citation|department=Book Review: The City of Devi|newspaper=[[Wall Street Journal]]|title=Bollywood Ending: A romping novel in which a woman searches Mumbai for her missing husband after the city is thrown into chaos by a dirty-bomb attack|first=Sam|last=Sacks|date=4 February 2013|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324610504578276333641227750}}.</ref>

In December 2013, Suri won the "Bad Sex in Fiction" prize for the climactic sex scene in ''The City of Devi''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-25212762|title=Bad Sex in Fiction: Manil Suri scoops 2013 award|date=4 December 2013|work=[[BBC Online]]|access-date=3 March 2014}}</ref> However, a reviewer in the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' praised the sex writing in the book,<ref name="sacks"/> as did a reviewer in ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'', who also commented that Suri "admirably" handles the strands of "sex, mythology and global politics".<ref>{{cite news|title=Rev. of Sura, ''The City of Devi''|last=Basu|first=Chitralekha|date=7 June 2013|work=[[The Times Literary Supplement]]}}</ref>

Suri has written an essay about growing up gay in India in the journal [[Granta]]<ref>[http://www.granta.com/New-Writing/How-to-be-Gay-and-Indian How to be gay and Indian]</ref> and has published op-eds about gay issues in the [[New York Times]]<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/opinion/the-courts-global-message-on-doma.html The Court's Global Message on DOMA]</ref><ref>{{cite web |first1=Manil |last1=Suri |title=Why Is Science So Straight? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/05/opinion/manil-suri-why-is-science-so-straight.html |website=The New York Times |date=4 September 2015}}</ref> and the [[Washington Post]].<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/manil-suri-indias-court-ruling-ignores-a-rich-heritage-of-diversity/2013/12/20/88e0acce-6828-11e3-ae56-22de072140a2_story.html Court Ruling Ignores India's Rich History of Diversity]</ref>

==Books==
* ''[[The Death of Vishnu]]: A Novel'' (W. W. Norton, 2001)
* ''The Age of Shiva: A Novel'' (W. W. Norton, 2008)
* ''The City of Devi: A Novel'' (W. W. Norton, 2013)

==Further reading==

*{{cite web|url=http://www.siam.org/news/news.php?id=1333|title=Second Novel in Print, Mathematician Manil Suri Ponders his Overlapping Careers|last=Sipics|first=Michele|date=12 April 2008|work=SIAM News|publisher=[[Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics|SIAM]]|access-date=2009-09-27}}
*{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/science/17conv.html|title=Professor Finds the Art in Both Numbers and Letters|last=Dreifus|author-link=Claudia Dreifus|first=Claudia|date=17 June 2008|work=[[New York Times]]|access-date=2009-09-27}}
*{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/books/review/James-t.html|title=A Fire in the Heart |last=James|first=Caryn|date=24 February 2008|work=[[New York Times]]|access-date=2009-09-27}}
*{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/28/books/the-god-on-the-landing.html|title=The God on the Landing|last=Gorra|first=Michael|date=28 January 2001|work=[[New York Times]]|access-date=2009-09-27}}
*{{cite book|last=Brians|first=Paul|title=Modern South Asian literature in English|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2003|chapter=Manil Suri: The Death of Vishnu (2001)|isbn=978-0-313-32011-8|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXOaji5B9u4C&pg=PA205}}
*{{cite book|last=Sanga|first=Jaina C.|title=South Asian novelists in English: an A-to-Z guide|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2003|chapter=Manil Suri (1959 - )|isbn=0-313-31885-9|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qlpKOzsOc-IC&pg=PA277}}

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Manil Suri}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041212093323/http://manilsuri.com/ Literary website]
*[http://www.math.umbc.edu/~suri/ Academic website]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suri, Manil}}
[[Category:1959 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Carnegie Mellon University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Maryland, Baltimore County faculty]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American male writers of Indian descent]]
[[Category:University of Mumbai alumni]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:LGBT novelists]]
[[Category:LGBT writers from India]]
[[Category:LGBT rights activists from India]]
[[Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States]]
[[Category:LGBT writers from the United States]]
[[Category:Gay writers]]
[[Category:PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners]]
[[Category:Novelists from Maryland]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:LGBT mathematicians]]

Manil Suri - Revision history

imported>Rab V at 07:53, 27 June 2021