Which Malaysian author, born in Alor Setar, won the 2003 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the debut novel 'The Rice Mother', a multi-generational saga of a Tamil family in colonial Malaya?

• A Preeta Samarasan
• B Tash Aw
• C Yangsze Choo
• D Rani Manicka ✓

Rani Manicka's 'The Rice Mother' spans 70 years from Ceylon to Japanese-occupied Malaya and was translated into over 20 languages; it remains one of the most internationally read Malaysian novels.