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In the world of the Booker this week: reflections on winning the International Booker Prize, a year on; take our IBP shortlist trivia quiz; and celebrate our May Book of the Month
‘After winning the International Booker Prize, I feel a renewed sense of purpose’
Almost a year after Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell won for Tomb of Sand, they talk about how the prize has brought them closer – and expanded their world…
The Indian writer Geetanjali Shree and her American translator Daisy Rockwell have experienced a whirlwind year since the night last May when they won the International Booker Prize for Tomb of Sand. But the evening did not get off to the most auspicious of starts.
‘The judges kept it very well hidden that we had won,’ says Shree, speaking over Zoom from her home in Delhi. One of the judges, she recalled, shook her hand, then quickly looked away and walked on.
Rockwell, who is joining our three-way Zoom call from Vermont, laughs and says: ‘All the judges tried to avoid us beforehand. But they just didn’t want to give it away.’
Afterwards, the judging panel, chaired by translator Frank Wynne, were much less enigmatic when it came to describing how much they had loved Shree and Rockwell’s book, which is the first novel written in Hindi to win the prize. They hailed the ‘power, the poignancy and the playfulness’ of Tomb of Sand, a polyphonic novel about an 80-year-old woman who, after becoming depressed following the death of her husband and lying in bed for most of the book’s first 200 pages, embarks upon a journey across her country and into her past. They called it ‘a luminous novel of India and partition, but one whose spellbinding brio and fierce compassion weaves youth and age, male and female, family and nation into a kaleidoscopic whole’.
The reaction to Tomb of Sand’s International Booker win was even more rapturous in India. ‘Thousands of people got up at 2 or 3am to watch the ceremony live,’ Shree explains. ‘I found that very moving. They were not my family or friends, just people who love literature and the language and had so much investment in it. They were completely ecstatic.’
Her mother’s response to the win touched Shree deeply. ‘She is 96 now and was so delighted. One of the biggest moments for me, bigger even than when the Booker was announced, was when my mother gave me a hug and said: “I knew one day you would reach here.” That meant everything to me.’
International Booker Prize 2023: take our shortlist trivia quiz
The International Booker Prize 2023 shortlist features two debut novels, work originating across four continents and a wife-and-husband author/translator team. But we’ve discovered even more interesting facts about the shortlistees…
Whether you’re sure you know the answers or you’re relying on educated guesswork, take our quiz to learn more about the International Booker Prize 2023’s shortlisted authors and translators.
May Book of the Month: The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing
A.S. Byatt called her ‘one of the few prophets of literature’, a woman who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times and was also shortlisted, for her entire body of work, for the Man Booker International Prize – not one, but twice. That’s why, throughout May, we’re celebrating Doris Lessing and her 1985 shortlisted novel, The Good Terrorist.
It’s a contemporary satire that pits radical ideology against a bourgeois upbringing and explores the contradictions and self-delusion at the heart of political idealism. Visit our Book of the Month page to read an exclusive essay from former Booker Prize judge and Professor of Modern English Literature John Mullan, read an extract from the novel, and explore our detailed reading guide, featuring insights from Lessing herself.
And finally…
In less than two weeks’ time, the winner of the International Booker Prize 2023 will be announced. The winning title chosen by this year’s panel will be revealed at a ceremony at Sky Garden in London on Tuesday, May 23, 2023.
Which book, author or translator would you like to win the 2023 prize? We’d love to hear which books from this year’s shortlist you couldn’t put down, and why. Let us know your predictions in the comments below.