The International Booker Award 2022 went to Tomb of Sand, Daisy Rockwell’s English translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Hindi novel Ret Samadhi.
“I never imagined I’d win the Booker; I never imagined I’d be able to.” In her award speech, Shree remarked, “What a huge recognition, I’m amazed, happy, honoured, and humbled.”
“It has a bittersweet satisfaction in receiving the honour.”
Ret Samadhi/Tomb of Sand is an elegy for the world we live in, enduring energy that maintains optimism despite imminent doom. The Booker will undoubtedly reach many more people than it would have otherwise, which should benefit the book,” she concluded.
The prize money for the International Booker Prize is 50,000 pounds, which will be split equally between the author and the translator.
The story of one family – notably the women in it, with a focus on an octogenarian widow whose husband has recently passed away – and their relationships with each other, history, and Partition is told through the eyes of Tomb of Sand.
“This is a beautiful novel of India and division,” Frank Wynne, chair of the judges, stated, “but one whose mesmerizing brio and searing compassion knits youth and age, male and female, family and nation into a kaleidoscopic whole.”