Karunatilaka, one of Sri Lanka’s leading authors, won the 50,000 pound ($57,000) award for his second novel.
The 47-year-old, who has also written journalism, children’s books, screenplays and rock songs, is the second Sri Lanka-born Booker Prize winner, after Michael Ondaatje, who took the trophy in 1992 for “The English Patient.”
Karunatilaka received the award from Camilla, Britain’s queen consort, during a ceremony at London’s Roundhouse concert hall.
The judges’ unanimous choice, “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” is the darkly humorous story about a murdered war photographer investigating his death and trying to ensure his life’s legacy.
Karunatilaka said Sri Lankans “specialize in gallows humor and make jokes in the face of crises”.
The winner was chosen over five other finalists: American authors Percival Everett for “The Trees” and Elizabeth Strout for “Oh William!”; “Glory” by Zimbabwe’s NoViolet Bulawayo; Irish writer Claire Keegan’s “Small Things Like These;” and “Treacle Walker” by British writer Alan Garner.
Karunatilaka paid tribute to his fellow authors on the 13-book longlist and six-book shortlist for the prize.
The five-member jury read 170 novels before choosing a winner. MacGregor said all the books explored the actions of individuals in a world “where fixed points are moving, disintegrating.”
Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize has a reputation for transforming writers’ careers. It was originally open to British, Irish and Commonwealth writers but eligibility was expanded in 2014 to all novels in English published in the U.K.
Last year’s winner was “The Promise,” by South Africa’s Damon Galgut.
The event was the first fully in-person Booker ceremony since the pre-pandemic event in 2019 and the first for longtime literacy champion Camilla since her husband became King Charles III last month after the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II.
The event also included a speech from singer-songwriter Dua Lipa about her love of reading, and a reflection from writer Elif Shafak on what the attack on novelist Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed onstage in August, means for writers around the world. (www.universalcurrentaffairs.com)
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