Geetanjali Shree: The first Indian to win the International Booker Prize
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Geetanjali Shree has won the International Booker Prize for the first time, making her the first Indian writer to do so. Her novel, Tomb of Sand, a family drama set in the aftermath of India’s partition, follows an 80-year-old woman after her husband’s death.
It was the first Hindi-language novel to make the £50,000 shortlist. She stated it felt fantastic to be the first book in Hindi to receive the prize, according to the Press Trust of India, in her acceptance speech.
The judges were “captivated by the strength, the poignancy, and the fun” of the story, according to Frank Wynne, the chair of the panel.
Shree and Daisy Rockwell, the book’s translator from the United States, will share the prize money.
Every year, the International Booker Prize is given to a book that has been translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. This is distinct from the Man Booker Prize, which is awarded to English-language novels and has previously been won by Indian authors such as Arundhati Roy and Aravind Adiga.
Shree’s 725-page novel was up against Mieko Kawakami, Bora Chung, Jon Fosse, Claudia Pineiro, and past winner Olga Tokarczuk, who were all shortlisted.
Shree, 64, was born in the Uttar Pradesh city of Mainpuri and is the author of three novels and several short story collections. Tomb of Sand is her first novel to be published in the United Kingdom.
It was first published in Hindi in 2018 under the title Ret Samadhi, and it follows Ma’s transformation following her husband’s death. She then decides to fly to Pakistan, where she will confront the trauma she has carried with her since she was a girl who lived through the partition.
Because of Shree’s “experimental nature” and “unique use of language,” Rockwell stated that Tomb of Sand was one of the most difficult pieces she had ever translated. She did, however, say that the experience was “a lot of fun” and “liberating.
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