South Africa's Growing Pains.(Damon Galgut)(Interview)

When Yann Martel's literary dark horse, "Life of Pi," won the Booker Prize last year, it seemed to herald the beginning of a new trend. Long dominated by well-established authors, the prestigious contest is increasingly recognizing newer talents, tackling more radical ideas. Five of the six writers shortlisted this year for the prize, to be handed out Oct. 14, are either first-time novelists or writers who have received little recognition or sales from previous novels. The 39-year- old gay South African writer Damon Galgut, for instance, caused little stir until "The Good Doctor," his fifth novel, which was published just last week in Britain. The compelling book is an allegorical tale about a cynical thirtysomething physician unwilling to confront his compliancy to South Africa's racist past. Galgut spoke last week with NEWSWEEK's Ginanne Brownell. Excerpts:

BROWNELL: What was your reaction when you found out you had made the shortlist for the Booker?

GALGUT: I was pleased and delighted, and then I got drunk. I can say being on the shortlist has made a huge difference to my life and career already. My first book got a fair amount of attention primarily because I was so young when I wrote it. Since then my career has been steadily shrinking till this turnaround. It is nice to know that the spotlight can still fall so far south.

Did your book touch a raw nerve when it was published in South Africa?

Reaction has varied from being intensely enthusiastic to intensely critical of the character of Frank because some people felt he belongs to the past and should be left there. But we cannot afford to not look at people like Frank. He is the kind of figure without which apartheid could not have survived, and in a way, it is people like Frank that drive any country along. He is a cynic, but South Africa is rich ground for cynics. His big sin, his crime, is to do nothing. But it is that sin that kept apartheid rolling along.

There is this overriding theme that young people, with only a generation separating them, view not only history but the future in completely different terms.

Exactly. The changeover in South Africa happened overnight. I taught at the University of Cape Town, and the kind of young people rising up through the university have no idea of what apartheid was about, what it entailed and what its values meant. To young people, black and white, it is a vague demi-event at the edge of things; it is not central in the ...