Novel by Sri Lanka's Shehan Karunatilaka wins Booker Prize

Source: Associated Press

Novel by Sri Lanka’s Shehan Karunatilaka wins Booker Prize

By JILL LAWLESS
October 17, 2022

LONDON (AP) — Writer Shehan Karunatilaka won the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction on Monday for “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida,” a satirical “afterlife noir” set during Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war.

Karunatilaka, one of Sri Lanka’s leading authors, won the 50,000 pound ($57,000) award for his second novel. The 47-year-old, who has also written journalism, children’s books, screenplays and rock songs, is the second Sri Lanka-born Booker Prize winner, after Michael Ondaatje, who took the trophy in 1992 for “The English Patient.”

Karunatilaka received the award from Camilla, Britain’s queen consort, during a ceremony at London’s Roundhouse concert hall.

The judges’ unanimous choice, “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” is the darkly humorous story about a murdered war photographer investigating his death and trying to ensure his life’s legacy.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/booker-prize-2022-e5190efb603c4ffed6f26b451c9d701a