The Booker Prize

First Indian language book to win the International Booker Prize: Author Geetanjali Shree’s translated Hindi novel, Tomb of Sand

• The 2018 novel titled ‘Ret Samadhi’ was translated by Daisy Rockwell and published as ‘Tomb of Sand’ in 2021.

The Booker Prize Award

• One of the best-known literary awards for fiction writing in English, including both novels and collections of short stories.
• First awarded in 1969
• Criteria: Must be written in English and published in the UK and Ireland
• International Booker Prize: Awarded annually for a single book, written in another language and translated into English. The £50,000 prize money is divided equally between the author and translator each year.

Many Indian-origin writers have won the Booker in the past, such as

• Arundhati Roy (‘The God of Small Things’)
• Salman Rushdie (‘Midnight’s Children’)
• Kiran Desai (‘The Inheritance of Loss’)
• Aravind Adiga (‘The White Tiger’)
• Shree is the first Indian to win an international prize

Source: Indian Express