Geetanjali Shree's winning moments at International Booker Prize ceremony- In Pics
Shree's 'Tomb of Sand' has become the first book in any Indian language to win the prestigious International Booker Prize.
Geetanjali Shree, 64-year-old Hindi novelist made history by becoming the first Indian to get nominated and let alone win one of the most prestigious prize awards in the literary area, the International Booker Prize. With this achievement, Shree's 'Tomb of Sand' has become the first book in any Indian language to win the prestigious International Booker Prize.
Tomb of Sand: Plot of Geetanjali Shree's novel
The story of the novel is set in northern India as an 80-year-old woman slips into a deep depression after the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. To her family's consternation, she insists on travelling to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist.
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Geetanjali Shree's work in literature
With three novels and several story collections, 64-year-old Shree's work has been translated into several languages including English, French, German, Serbian, and Korean and has received and been shortlisted for a number of awards and fellowships. 'Tomb of Sand' is one of her first books to be published in the UK.
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Geetanjali Shree's translator for 'Tomb of Sand', Daisy Rockwell
The International Booker Prize
The sister prize of the Booker Prize, the International Booker Prize is given is awarded for a book translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Shree received prize worth GBP 50,000 and shared with the book's English translator, Daisy Rockwell for Tomb of Sand.
This year the judges considered 135 books and for the first time in 2022, all shortlisted authors and translators will each receive 2,500 pounds, an increase from 1,000 pounds in previous years, bringing the total value of the prize to 80,000 pounds.
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Geetanjali Shree's 'Tomb of Sand' leaves behind 5 competitors
Shree's novel was chosen from a shortlist of six books, the others being: 'Cursed Bunny' by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur from Korean; 'A New Name: Septology VI-VII' by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls from Norwegian; 'Heaven' by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Samuel Bett and David Boyd from Japanese; 'Elena Knows' by Claudia Pineiro, translated by Frances Riddle from Spanish; and 'The Books of Jacob' by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft from Polish.
(Image credit: Mieko Kawakami)