The protagonist of the novel is a war photojournalist, gambler and homosexual who has remained hidden and who will try to discover who has killed him.
The story, narrated with black humor, takes place in a scenario where a series of murders take place in the capital of Sri Lanka in the 1990s, after the civil war.
Neil MacGregorwho headed the jury, described the work as a “black novel from beyond the grave” that “takes the reader on a roller coaster ride through life and death.”
“My hope is that in the not too distant future, Sri Lanka has understood that these ideas of corruption, racial harassment and cronyism have not worked and will never work,” the writer said.
“I hope it will be in print 10 years from now…if it is, I hope it will be written in a Sri Lankan that learns from its stories, and will be in the fantasy section of the bookstore, next to the dragons and unicorns and not be confused with realism or political satire,” he added.
Karunatilaka revealed that he had “self-censored” a couple of short stories after the author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in August after facing years of death threats over his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous.
On receiving the award, Karunatilaka thanked his publisher Sort of Books for publishing this “bizarre, difficult, strange” book, the AFP news agency reported.
Born in 1975, the writer also worked as a copywriter, and his songs, scripts and stories were published in Rolling Stone, GQ and National Geographic.
The award was presented in London by the queen consort Camilain one of her main public appearances since the accession to the throne of her husband, King Charles III.
During the award ceremony, the pop singer Dua Lipawho visited Argentina last month, gave a speech in which he spoke of his “passion” for reading, describing it as “one of the deepest joys in the world.”
The singer-songwriter, who was the most listened to artist in the UK in 2020 and who recommends books she likes on social media, said she had read all six shortlisted books and “loved them”.
The ceremony was held in person for the first time since 2019, after two editions that took place remotely due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The award is given each year to a work that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland and seeks to encourage more quality fiction publishing and reading from around the world and promote the work of translators.
Shehan Karunatilaka is the second Sri Lankan writer to win the Booker Prize, after Michael Ondaatje in 1992 for “The English Patient”.
The contest, which rewards novels written in English published in the UK or Ireland, awards a prize of 50,000 pounds ($56,775). Among the authors who received the prize, are Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Hilary Mantel and the South African Nobel J. M. Coetzee.
Source: Ambito
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