Must-read books written by 2022 Booker Prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka

On Monday, Shehan Karunatilaka, who hails from Sri Lanka, won Britain'sprestigious2022 Booker Prize for his fiction book 'The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida', which is a satirical afterlife noir set during Sri Lanka's civil war. It revolves around a journalist who gets murdered amid the country's sectarian strife.

Apart from the trophy, he also won a £50,000 ($56,000) cash prize. The accolade also provides a career-changing boost in sales and public profile, which helps an author reach new milestones.

Karunatilaka is the second Sri Lankan to win this award. The first one was Michael Ondaatje, who bagged the award in 1992 for 'The English Patient'.

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Talking about the special moment, the 47-year-old author said, "My hope for Seven Moons is this... that in the not-so-distant future... that it is read in a Sri Lanka that has understood that these ideas of corruption and race-baiting and cronyism have not worked and will never work."

"I hope it's in print in 10 years but if it is, I hope it's written in (a) Sri Lanka that learns from its stories, and that Seven Moons will be in the fantasy section of the bookshop... next to the dragons, the unicorns (and) will not be mistaken for realism or political satire," he added.

The book was described as "an afterlife noir that dissolves the boundaries not just of different genres, but of life and death, body and spirit, east and west" by Chair of judges, Neil MacGregor.

According to reports, itis set amid the mayhem of a civil war-wracked Colombo in the late 1980s. It talks about a war photographer and gambler Maali Almeida who sets out in the afterlife to find out who was responsible and expose the brutality of the conflict, having been allowed seven moons to do so.

Here're some more books written by the Sri Lankan author:

Chinaman

'Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew', Karunatilaka's debut novel,tells the story of an alcoholic journalist's quest to find a missing Sri Lankan cricketer in the 1980s. Described as part-comedy, part-mystery, part-tragedy and part-drunken-memoir, the novel won the Commonwealth Prize and was selected for the BBC and The Reading Agency's Big Jubilee Read.

Chats with the Dead

Karunatilaka's second novel'Chats with the Dead'is a black comedy about ghosts. It was published in 2020 by Penguin India. Set against the backdrop of the civil war, the story "chronicles the challenges and ethical dilemmas of a war photographer who is trying to solve his own murder mystery".

Queen Consort Camilla handed over the coveted prize to the author at the televised ceremony on October 17. It marksone of her highest-profile appearances since her husband King Charles III ascended the throne last month. Dua Lipa also gave a speech at the event in UK.