Geetanjali Shree becomes first Indian to win International Booker Prize for ‘Tomb of Sand’

Renowned Hindi writer – Geetanjali Shree – has won the International Booker Prize for the novel penned by her – Tomb of Sand.

Geetanjali Shree is the first Indian writer to win the International Booker Prize.

Tomb of Sand, originally Red Samadhi, is set in the shadow of the partition of India that follows an 80-year-old woman following her husband’s demise.

It was the first Hindi-language book to be shortlisted for the £50,000 prize.

“I never dreamt of the Booker, I never thought I could,” Geetanjali Shree said in her acceptance speech.

“Behind me and this book lies a rich and flourishing literary tradition in Hindi, and in other South Asian languages,” she said.

“World literature will be the richer for knowing some of the finest writers in these languages,” the 64-year-old author added.

The prize money will be split between Geetanjali Shree and the book’s translator – US-based Daisy Rockwell.

The International Booker Prize is awarded every year for a book that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland.

Geetanjali Shree’s 725-page novel – Tomb of Sand – competed against five other shortlisted titles, by Mieko Kawakami, Bora Chung, Jon Fosse, Claudia Pineiro and former winner Olga Tokarczuk.