Kathmandu: Hindi author Geetanjali Shree’s novel Ret Samadhi, Tomb of Sand has won the International Booker prize, becoming the first novel translated from Hindi to do so.
Geetanjali Shree is not only the award’s first Hindi winner, but also it is for the first time a book originally written in any Indian language has won the booker prize.
Geetanjali Shree said There is a melancholy satisfaction in the award going to Tomb of Sand. This is an elegy for the world we inhabit, a lasting energy that retains hope in the face of impending doom.
A Report Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell has won the prestigious Booker prize, the prize money of 50,000 Pounds will be shared between the author and translator equally.
Shree’s book clinched the award, where 135 books competed.
Tomb of Sand is the story about an 80-year-old woman, who slips into a deep depression when her husband dies, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. The woman travels to Pakistan to confront the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluates what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman and a feminist.
Shree is the author of three novels and several short story collections, although Tomb of Sand is the first of her books to be published in the UK. Rockwell is a painter, writer and translator living in Vermont, US, who has translated a number of works from Hindi and Urdu literature.
Despite the fact that Britain has a very long relationship with the Indian subcontinent, very few books are translated from Indian languages, from Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Bengali, said officials from Booker and hoped that Geetanjali’s success will inspire other authors from around the world to enter the competition.