Ambitious Booker winner Aravind Adaga sacks agent of his success

When Aravind Adiga's agent, Cathryn Summerhayes, secured an eye-watering advance for him at the London Book Fair last year, she boasted: "If you've got a hot book, everyone wants to know you." But now that Adiga, a previously unknown Oxford graduate, has won the Booker Prize, it seems that he is no longer among that "everyone".
Richard Eden , writing in the Telegraph, 25 Oct 2008

Mandrake can disclose that Adiga – whose debut book, The White Tiger, was described as the "perfect novel" by Michael Portillo, the chairman of this year's Booker judges – has suddenly parted company with the William Morris Agency, the world's biggest literary talent firm.

"I guess you can call it being 'sacked'," says a clearly rueful Miss Summerhayes, who has been widely credited with helping Adiga win the £50,000 prize. "No reason was given why. He just sent a letter to the US office to say that we would no longer be representing him, but that we would still look after the book rights. I don't think you will find, however, any publisher who said we didn't do a great job on the book and no one had a bad word to say about us."

Read the full story at the Telegraph online.