Originally written in Hindi, Geetanjali Shree’s novel ‘Ret Samadhi‘, is the first book in any Indian language to win the International Booker Prize.
Geetanjali Shree has been writing for the past three decades and at a ceremony in London on Thursday, the New Delhi-based writer said she was ‘completely overwhelmed’ with the ‘bolt from the blue’ as she accepted the prestigious award.
‘I never dreamt of the Booker, I never thought I could. What a huge recognition, I’m amazed, delighted, honored and humbled’? said Ms. Shree, in her acceptance speech.
‘But behind me and this book lies a rich and flourishing literary tradition in Hindi, and in other South Asian languages. World literature will be the richer for knowing some of the finest writers in these languages. The vocabulary of life will increase from such an interaction,’ she said of the importance of the Hindi literary tradition.
The prize is worth GBP 50,000 and will be shared with the book’s English translator, Daisy Rockwell.
?Tomb of Sand’ is set in northern India and follows an 80-year-old woman confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, in a tale the Booker judges dubbed a ‘joyous cacophony’ and an ‘irresistible novel.’
‘There is a melancholy satisfaction in the award going to it. ?Ret Samadhi/Tomb of Sand’ is an elegy for the world we inhabit, a lasting energy that retains hope in the face of impending doom. The Booker will surely take it to many more people than it would have reached otherwise, that should do the book no harm,? she said.
The book’s English translator, Rockwell, a painter, writer and translator living in Vermont, US, joined Ms. Shree on stage to receive her award for translating the novel she described as a ‘love letter to the Hindi language.’
‘Ultimately, we were captivated by the power, the poignancy and the playfulness of ?Tomb of Sand’, Geetanjali Shree’s polyphonic novel of identity and belonging, in Daisy Rockwell’s exuberant, coruscating translation,’ said Frank Wynne, chair of the judging panel.
‘This is a luminous novel of India and partition, but one whose spellbinding brio and fierce compassion weaves youth and age, male and female, family and nation into a kaleidoscopic whole,’ he said.
The Booker jury were impressed that rather than respond to tragedy with seriousness, Shree’s playful tone and exuberant wordplay results in a book that is ‘engaging, funny, and utterly original.’
The judging panel considered 135 books and for the first time in 2022, all shortlisted authors and translators will each receive GBP 2,500, increased from GBP 1,000 in previous years ? bringing the total value of the prize to GBP 80,000.
