Booker Award for Geetanjali Shree: Indian literature has once again made a achievement. A big achievement was registered in the name of Indian writer Geetanjali Shree. Geetanjali Shree and American translator Daisy Rockwell have received the International Booker Prize for the novel ‘Tomb of Sand’.
Originally written in Hindi, this is the first book that has been successful in winning this prestigious award. After winning this award, Geetanjali Shree said that she is very happy. She never imagined that she would get this award. She is feeling very excited after winning this.
“I never dreamt of the Booker, I never thought I could. What a huge recognition, I’m amazed, delighted, honoured and humbled,” said Ms Shree, in her acceptance speech.
“There is a melancholy satisfaction in the award going to it. ‘Ret Samadhi/Tomb of Sand’ is an elegy for the world we inhabit, a lasting energy that retains hope in the face of impending doom. The Booker will surely take it to many more people than it would have reached otherwise, that should do the book no harm,” she said.
Translated into English by Daisy Rockwell, the main character of this novel is an 80-year-old woman. Both have been given an amount of 50,000 pounds ($63,000) for the award. While Geetanjali lives in New Delhi, Rockwell lives in Vermont.
Along with this book, 13 books from around the world were in the race for this award. Translator Frank Wynne, who chaired the panel of judges, said the judges voted ‘Tomb of Sand’ to the title by a majority vote after a very passionate debate. He said that, it is a dazzling novel of India. Wynne said that, despite the traumatic events she faced, it is an extraordinarily unbelievable book.
“Ultimately, we were captivated by the power, the poignancy and the playfulness of ‘Tomb of Sand’, Geetanjali Shree’s polyphonic novel of identity and belonging, in Daisy Rockwell’s exuberant, coruscating translation,” said Frank Wynne, chair of the judging panel.
“This is 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,” he said.
The novel tells the story of an 80-year-old elderly widow who loses her husband after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. After that she goes into deep depression. After much struggle, she overcomes her depression and decides to go to Pakistan to face the past left behind during Partition.
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