Author Shehan Karunatilaka Becomes the Recipient of the Prestigious Booker Prize Award 2022

on Oct 18, 2022

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, a Sri Lankan author widely renowned for his rock songs, screenplays, and travel memoirs, has won the Booker Prize 2022, one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world. The second book by Karunatilaka is a satire set in war-torn Sri Lanka and centers on the life of a war photographer who, after passing away, undertakes a journalistic expedition. Karunatilaka will get a reward check for £50,000.

The United Kingdom's Queen Consort Camilla and musician Dua Lipa attended the event, which was held at the Roundhouse, a well-known performance venue in London.

"My aim for [Seven Moons] is this: that in the not-too-distant future, it is read in a Sri Lanka that has learned that the principles of corruption, race-baiting, and cronyism have not worked and will never work," Karunatilaka stated after receiving the prize. I hope it's read in Sri Lanka that takes lessons from its tales, that this book will be found in the fantasy section of a bookstore, and that it won't be misinterpreted as realism or political satire.

This year's judges were scholar Shahidha Bari, historian Helen Castor, critic M. John Harrison, and author Alain Mabanckou in addition to cultural historian and panel chair Neil MacGregor. They went through 169 entries.

Before revealing the winner, MacGregor stated, "We feel that each of our nominated novels would be a deserving winner. Each of them poses the same query differently: What is the ultimate worth of human life? The book we've selected takes readers on a trip beyond life and beyond death, to the dark center of the planet, which is simultaneously horrifying and amusing. And there we discover kindness and laughter, loyalty and love, which is surprising and inspiring.

The shortlist, which was revealed on September 6, included its smallest novel, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, at 116 pages, and its oldest author, Alan Garner (88), for Treacle Walker.

Three men and three women, representing five nations and four continents, were on the shortlist. Each finalist got £2,500 in addition to a copy of their book that was professionally bound. Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo, The Trees by Percival Everett, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, and Oh William! were the other works that made the shortlist. via Elizabeth Strout.

Every year, a book written in English and released in the United Kingdom or Ireland is given the Booker Prize. The International Booker Prize is given to a translation that has been published in the same region. Geetanjali Shree won the 2022 edition of her Hindi Book Tomb of Sand, making it the first Indian-language work to do so. Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Margaret Atwood, and the late Hilary Mantel are just a few of the numerous winners whose careers were completely transformed after receiving their honors.