Sri Lankan Author Shehan Karunatilaka Wins UK Booker Prize

On the 17th (local time), at the Booker Prize ceremony held at the Roundhouse in London, Camilla, Queen of the United Kingdom (right in the photo), presented the trophy to Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka (left in the photo), who won the 2022 Booker Prize for his novel Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka (47) has won the UK's most prestigious literary award, the Booker Prize, for his novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

On the 17th (local time), Karunatilaka received the Booker Prize at an awards ceremony held at the Roundhouse Concert Hall in London, UK. Considered one of Sri Lanka's leading writers, Karunatilaka has been actively producing works including children's books, screenplays, and rock music compositions. He is the second Sri Lankan to win the Booker Prize, following Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a dark yet humorous novel set against the backdrop of Sri Lanka's civil war in the 1990s. The protagonist, Maali, a photographer, dies during the civil war and awakens in the afterlife, where he connects with loved ones through seven moons that bridge the afterlife and the living world, delivering photographs that document the horrors of the war.

Karunatilaka stated, "Sri Lankans crack gallows humor when faced with crisis," and added, "I hope this novel, which deals with war and ethnic division, will someday be displayed in the fantasy section of bookstores."

The Booker Prize is considered one of the world's top three literary awards, alongside France's Prix Goncourt and the Nobel Prize in Literature. The judging panel selects the winner from a total of 170 novels, awarding the author a prize of ?50,000 (approximately 80 million KRW).

Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum and chair of the judging panel, commented, "Readers will find surprise, joy, fear, love, and loyalty in this book," and praised Karunatilaka's novel for giving readers the sensation of riding a rollercoaster between life and death.

Other nominees for this year's Booker Prize included American author Percival Everett's The Trees, Elizabeth Strout's Oh William, Zimbabwean author Noviolet Bulawayo's Glory, Irish author Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These, and British author Alan Garner's Treacle Walker.

Last year's Booker Prize was awarded to South African author Damon Galgut for his novel The Promise.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.