Sri Lankan Author Shehan Karunatilaka Wins Booker Prize For 'The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida'

Shehan Karunatilaka’s second novel has been described as searing, mordantly funny satire set amid the murderous mayhem of a Sri Lanka beset by civil war

Britain's Camilla, Queen Consort (R) presents the Booker Prize for fiction award to Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka (L) for his novel "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida", during the Booker Prize for Fiction 2022 awards ceremony, in London

New Delhi: Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has been named as the winner of the Booker Prize 2022 during the announcement made in a ceremony in London on Monday.

Karunatilaka is the second Sri Lankan-born author to win the award. Shehan Karunatilaka’s second novel has been described as searing, mordantly funny satire set amid the murderous mayhem of a Sri Lanka beset by civil war.

We are delighted to announce that the WINNER of the #BookerPrize2022 is ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida ’ by Shehan Karunatilaka.

Discover more about the winning book: https://t.co/e5pLgvWmld@shehankaru @sortofbooks @ShahidhaBari @hrcastor @amabanckou @mjohnharrison pic.twitter.com/mtaVewL7Ij

— The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) October 17, 2022

The novel captures the story of a war photographer who has woken up dead in what seems to be a celestial visa office, as mentioned on Booker’s website. He has ‘seven moon’ to try and solve his death’s mystery and help unveil a cache of photos that will rock warn-torn Sri Lanka The author has also written rock songs, screenplays and travel stories.

The award comes as Sri Lanka recovers for the aftermath of soaring prices leading to a civil uprising and a shuffle in the government.

Who's Shehan Karunatilaka? 

Karunatilaka was born in 1975 in Galle, Sri Lanka. He grew up in Colombo and pursued his education in New Zealand and across many countries including London, Amsterdam and Singapore.

He emerged on the global literary scene in 2011 after winning the Commonwealth Book Prize, the DSL and Gratiaen Prize for his debut novel, Chinaman. The book was declared the second-best cricket book of all time by Wisden, according to the profile mentioned on the website.

He currently lives in Sri Lanka. His songs, scripts and stories have been published in Rolling Stone, GQ and National Geographic. He has worked as an advertising copywriter and played guitar in a band called Independent Square.