We knew it was only a matter of time! Monica Ali, bookies’ favorite for winning the Booker Prize this year, is now being chased by the evil Hollywood types with mega-million dollar offers, reports the Independent of UK.
Her bittersweet debut novel, Brick Lane, is the object of a fierce bidding war between rival film-makers eager to capitalise on the buzz surrounding her status as the publishing industry’s closest thing to a “new Zadie Smith”.
One thought we share with the Independent…
On the face of it, Brick Lane is hardly the stuff of blockbuster movies. It tells the story of Nazneen, a teenage girl from Bangladesh who ekes out a painful existence in the shadow of a domineering husband twice her age in a cramped flat in London’s Tower Hamlets.
But what does Ms. Ali say?
Ali, who is currently touring America promoting Brick Lane, was unavailable for comment, but her pursuit by Hollywood studios eager to turn her novel into a film was confirmed by her New York-based agent, Nicole Aragi. Ms Aragi said: “Monica was on the cover of The New York Times Book Review, and when that happens to a writer people connected with Hollywood are on the phone. We’ve had lots of general queries about movies. It’s something one hopes will come about with a really intelligent director involved.”