Udaipur, November 21, 2024 - Popular Indian author Arefa Tehsin’s novel The Witch in the Peepul Tree has been shortlisted as The Asian Trio for the Asian Committee's 2024 Asian Prize of Fiction. The other two authors contending for the prize are Nepali-Indian author Smriti Ravindra and American fiction writer VV Ganeshananthan. The winner will be chosen using a composite criterion which will include selection made by book clubs, a public survey and assessment by the Asian Committee. The Committee has three rotating members each year in addition to five permanent members.

The short-listed authors were selected from six outstanding works. The other two short-listed works are Ravindra’s Woman Who Climbed Trees and Ganeshananthan’s Brotherless Night.

The Witch in the Peepul Tree is a murder mystery set against the socio-economic backdrop of the 1950s Udaipur, India. It revolves around the mysterious death of 16-year-old Sanaz in Bohrawadi on the day of Makar Sankranti.

Woman Who Climbed Trees is a beautifully written account of migration and self-discovery. Meena embarks on a quest to find who she really is as she adjusts to life in Nepal.

Brotherless Night is a historical fiction set against the backdrop of Sri Lanka’s civil conflicts.

From among these three, one book will be declared The Asian Fiction of 2023.