The 2022 Booker Prize winner SHEHAN KARUNATHILAKE
Namo magazine wishes to take this opportunity to extend our sincere appreciation and admiration to Shehan Karunatilake to embark on his literary work further to the delight of readers around the world and Sri Lanka in particular.
SHEHAN MADE HISTORY
Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilake won the prestigious ‘Booker Prize’ in 2022 at a gala event in London graced by Camilla Parker, the queen consort of the United Kingdom. This is the second time that a Sri Lankan won this prize after Michael Ondaatje for his sensational novel ‘English Patient 1992. This is the second novel compiled by versatile Shehan Karunatilake which was titled ‘Seven Moons of Maali Almedida’. It is significant that the panel of judges unanimously voted for his novel to be the undisputed winner this year. This book was published by the Independent Publisher Sort of Books in the UK. The panel of judges comprising 5 members admired the fact that this epic novel revolved around a war photographer who was murdered with no clue about the murderer. A ghost evoked out of his spirit to uncover this cold-blooded murder in the aftermath. The judges were fascinated by the ambition of its scope, and the hilarious audacity of its narrative and approach. The main character in the novel being a homo-sexual also created a controversy in the narrative as it is a taboo subject in Sri Lankan society even today.
The Booker Prize was originally introduced in 1969 in the UK. The Booker Prize, which was previously known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and thereafter, the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is the highest literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The winner of the Booker Prize receives a handsome cash prize as well as international publicity which will naturally lead to a sales boost in the market. At the inception of this literary award, it was only meant for novels written by Commonwealth of British Colonies, Irish, and South African (and later Zimbabwean) citizens were considered eligible to receive the prize; in 2014 it was broad-based to encompass any English-language novel written irrespective of the country.
Shehan who was born in the southern city of Galle, Sri Lanka, is an international character in every sense. Although he finds roots in Sri Lanka, he received his primary and secondary education in New Zealand. And today, he works as a journalist based in London. His signature debut in literacy began with the publishing of the novel ‘Chinaman’ eliciting the character of Pradeep Mathew, a missing Cricketer. This book, although it was his debut novel, received many laurels from various literary fraternities of the world. He was also honoured with the Commonwealth Prize for Asia region in 2012. In the same year, he won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for his work. This novel had a great following in India and the UK. Even the famous Wisden Cricket Magazine named it as one of the greatest Cricketing novels ever published. This proves the fact that Shehan is indeed a gifted writer and has many more to deliver in the future.
Shehan Karunatilake is domiciled in England but his Sri Lankan origins have been deep-rooted in his veins. Upon receiving the Booker Prize, he went on to address the audience in both native languages: Sinhala and Tamil. This had an allure of affection from fellow Sri Lankans. Furthermore, his love for the game of Cricket was unequivocal in his speech as he referred to the Sri Lanka Vs Namibia match in the current Twenty/ 20 World Championship in which the former was routed unexpectedly. He also didn’t dare to munch about recent atrocities against journalists in Sri Lanka, especially mentioning the name of a media icon Richard De Zoysa who was slain in the 1988/89 uprising. On top of everything, Shehan is a unique character. He won this year’s award by the unanimous decision of the panel of judges. This is not to dwarf the feat of Michael Ondaatje 30 years back but he was only the co-winner of the award in 1992 although his novel ‘English Patient’ was made into a sensational film later on.
