Sehan Karutilanka, from Sri Lanka, was awarded for his novel “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”. The literary prize was presented to him in London by the royal wife Camilla.
Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunathilaka received the coveted Booker Prize on Monday night for his novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, a macabre satire set against the civil war raging at home of for decades.
The prize-giving jury praised the author’s “range, skill, audacity, irreverence and hilarity”, who saw the award for just his second novel, a metaphysical thriller.
The book unfolds, with heavy doses of black humor, a case of murder in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, in the 1990s, in the midst of the merciless civil war.
In its pages, the eponymous war photojournalist, gambler and homosexual who keeps his sexual orientation a secret tries to find out who murdered and dismembered him.
Accepting the award, Sehan Karunatilaka praised the other five finalists and thanked his publishing house, Sort of Books, for printing this “strange, difficult, otherworldly” book. He also expressed his hope that in the “not too distant future”, Sri Lanka “will realize that (…) corruption, incitement to racism, favoritism have not benefited and will never benefit”.
The literary award was presented to him in London by the royal wife Camilla, in one of her first public appearances after her husband, now King Charles III, ascended the throne. It was the first Booker award ceremony to be held live since 2019, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Sehan Karunathilaka, 47, is the second Sri Lankan writer to be awarded the prize, after Michael Odatje in 1992 for The English Patient.
Last year, the South African writer Damon Galgut received the prize for his novel “The Promise”, which chronicles the life of a family of white landowners in post-apartheid South Africa.
The award comes with a cash prize of 50,000 pounds (about 60,000 euros) and guarantees international acclaim.
Writers who have received this award for English-language literary works printed in Britain and Ireland include Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Hilary Mandel…
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I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
