2022 Booker Prize

October 19, 2022

Shehan Karunatilaka recently received the 2022 Booker Prize for his novel “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”.

Key facts

The Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize for “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”.
The novel was recognized for its scope and the humorous narrative tactics that bring home the fact that concepts of corruption, race-baiting, and cronyism will never work.
The work narrates the story of a war photographer who has woken up dead in a celestial visa office. He has “seven moons” to try and solve his death’s mystery and help unveil photos that will rattle war-torn Sri Lanka.
With this, Shehan Karunatilaka became the second Sri Lankan to receive this prestigious literary award.
The first Sri Lankan to receive this award is Michael Ondaatje, who won the award in 1992 for his work “The English Patient”.
Karunatilaka had published three picture books and two novels over the years.
In 2010, he published his debut book titled “Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew”. This work received the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize and gave the author global recognition.
Earlier, his first manuscript “The Painter” was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 2000. However, it was never published.
In addition to famous novels, Karunatilaka has also written features on music, sports, and travel for The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Wisden, GQ, Conde Nast, and National Geographic.
He has over 20 years of experience writing for ad agencies, tech firms, media houses, start-ups, and multinationals in Singapore, London, Colombo, Sydney, and Amsterdam.
His works are influenced by Kurt Vonnegut, William Goldman, Salman Rushdie, Michael Ondaatje, Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Tom Robbins, and others.

About Booker Prize

Booker Prize is a literary prize that is conferred each year to recognize the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Initially, this prize recognized only those novels written by authors from Commonwealth countries, Ireland and South Africa. In 2014, it was expanded to include any English-language novel.

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