• Tomb of Sand is the first book originally written in any Indian language to win the prize, and the first novel translated from Hindi to be recognised 
   
• The novel is published by Tilted Axis Press, which was founded by Deborah Smith, winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize for her translation of The Vegetarian by Korean author Han Kang
   
• Tomb of Sand is Geetanjali’s first novel to be published in the UK
   
• Daisy Rockwell’s English translation won one of English PEN’s flagship translation awards in 2019

You can download the press release here

The author of three novels and several story collections, Geetanjali Shree has been translated into English, French, German, Serbian, and Korean.

She was born in Mainpuri, India, in 1957. This is the first of her books to be published in the UK.

She has received and been shortlisted for a number of awards and fellowships, and lives in New Delhi.

Daisy Rockwell is a painter, writer and translator living in Vermont, US. She was born in 1969 in Massachusetts.

She has translated a number of classic works of Hindi and Urdu literature, including Upendranath Ashk’s Falling Walls, Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas, and Khadija Mastur’s The Women’s Courtyard.

Her 2019 translation of Krishna Sobti’s A Gujarat Here, a Gujarat There was awarded the Modern Language Association’s Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Translation Prize.

Tomb of Sand is set in northern India, and follows an 80-year-old woman who slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention – including striking up a friendship with a hijra person – confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more ‘modern’ of the two.

To her family’s consternation, Ma insists on travelling to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist.

Rather than respond to tragedy with seriousness, Geetanjali Shree’s playful tone and exuberant wordplay results in a book that is engaging, funny, and utterly original, at the same time as being an urgent and timely protest against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders.

Tomb of Sand was chosen from a shortlist of six books during a lengthy and rigorous judging process, by a panel of five judges, chaired by translator, Frank Wynne.

The panel also included author and academic, Merve Emre; writer and lawyer, Petina Gappah; writer, comedian and TV, radio and podcast presenter, Viv Groskop; and translator and author, Jeremy Tiang.

This is the first time a translator has chaired the panel.

The International Booker Prize is awarded every year for a single book that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. It aims to encourage more publishing and reading of quality fiction from all over the world and to promote the work of translators. Both novels and short-story collections are eligible. The contribution of author and translator is given equal recognition, with the £50,000 prize split between them. In addition, for the first time in 2022, the shortlisted authors and translators each received £2,500, increased from £1,000 in previous years - bringing the total value of the prize to £80,000.

This year the judges considered 135 books, with a record number of submissions received.

Together, the two Booker Prizes reward the best fiction from around the globe that is published in English in the UK and Ireland. 

The Booker Prizes online – the website and our channels on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and You Tube – is the home for the Booker Prizes past and present. As well as a full history of our previous winners, nominated authors and judges, it is also a hub for year-round editorial content around our 500 or so books and authors, designed to engage readers with both prizes and to foster a lifelong love of reading.