From the Academy

The Academy is a great store of knowledge and opinion about great books. From time to time we ask its members to write a short piece on books they have admired. Here are some of their responses, most recently about 2015 Folio Prize winner Akhil Sharma’s Family Life, and further back about the one book they would have liked to win the Prize if it had always existed.

Anne Tyler on 2015 Folio Prize winner Akhil Sharma

Family LifeAkhil Sharma’s Family Life is a heartbreaker—the story of an Indian family visited by tragedy shortly after arriving in America. It is narrated by the younger son in a voice that is grave and quiet and startlingly direct, mingling quiet sadness with unexpected flashes of affectionate humor. The effect is indelible.