Novelist Gitanjali Shri has won the prestigious International Booker Prize for her novel Tomb of Sand, which has been translated from Hindi, becoming the first Indian woman to receive the award.
Shri’s novel deals with the story of an eighty-year-old woman who begins a new, unexpected and unconventional life after the death of her husband. The story takes place in northern India.
While the novel “Tomb of Sand” became the first Hindi-language book to receive this award, which was presented during a party in London on Thursday evening, with a cash prize of fifty thousand pounds (about 62,000 dollars) to be shared by the writer with the American translator Daisy Rockwell.
I never thought I would get it
“I’ve never dreamed of a ‘Booker’ prize, and never imagined that I would receive it,” the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Shri as saying.
“What a great appreciation. I am amazed, happy and proud,” added the novelist, who was born in Minpuri, India in 1957 and now lives in New Delhi.
She pointed out that she and the book are a model of “a rich and flourishing literary output in Hindi and other South Asian languages,” stressing that “acquaintance with some of the best writers in these languages would be a rich source of world literature.”
unparalleled book
Frank Wayne, who chaired the jury, said he had never read a book like this before, adding that the novel carries the meanings of life, strength and passion that the world needs today.
Shri competed with five other female novelists in the final stage of the award, including Poland’s Olga Tokarczuk, the Nobel Prize winner for literature, and Claudia Pinheiro of Argentina and Bora Chung from South Korea.
Last year’s “Booker” prize went to the novel “Freer Dam” by French writer David Diop.