Geetanjali Shree is an author who wrote a novel in Hindi named ‘Tomb of Sand’ has become the first book in any Indian language to win the prestigious International Booker Prize.
English translation by Daisy Rockwell
Her novel titled Ret Samadhi was translated into English as Tomb of Sand by Daisy Rockwell. At a ceremony in London on May 26, she got prize worth £50,000. Rockwell is a painter, writer and translator living in Vermont, US, also joined her on stage to receive her award for translating the novel she described as a “love letter to the Hindi language”.
Story of 80-year-old woman of northern India
Tomb of Sand’, originally ‘Ret Samadhi’, is a story set in northern India and follows an 80-year-old woman in a tale the Booker judges dubbed a “joyous cacophony” and an “irresistible novel”. “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,” Frank Wynne, chair of the judging panel.
The book’s 80-year-old protagonist, Ma, to her family’s consternation, insists on travelling to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist.
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”, at the same time as being an urgent and timely protest against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders.
First book to be published in the UK
The author of three novels and several story collections, Shree has translated her works into English, French, German, Serbian, and Korean. ‘Tomb of Sand’ originally published in Hindi in 2018, is the first of her books to be published in the UK in English by Tilted Axis Press in August 2021.
Other shortlisted books
Shree’s novel was chosen from a shortlist of six books, the others being: ‘Cursed Bunny’ by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur from Korean; ‘A New Name: Septology VI-VII’ by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls from Norwegian; ‘Heaven’ by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Samuel Bett and David Boyd from Japanese; ‘Elena Knows’ by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle from Spanish; and ‘The Books of Jacob’ by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft from Polish.
First time all shortlisted authors receive GBP 2,500
This year in 2022, the judges considered 135 books and for the first time 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.
