Author Geetanjali Shree’s Hindi novel ‘Tomb of Sand’ has become the first book in any Indian language to win the prestigious International Booker Prize.

Born in the city of Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh, Shree, in 1957, Shree is the author of three novels and several story collections. Tomb of Sand is the first of her books to be published in the UK.

Her first story, “Bel Patra” (1987), was published in the literary magazine Hans and was followed by a collection of short stories Anugoonj (1991).

Shree’s second novel Hamara Shahar Us Baras is set loosely after the incidents of Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.

Her fourth novel, Khālī jagah (2006), has been translated into English (by Nivedita Menon as The Empty Space), French (by Nicola Pozza as Une place vide), and German (by Georg Lechner and Nivedita Menon as Im leeren Raum). Geetanjali Shree is the recipient of the Indu Sharma Katha Samman award and has been a fellow of the Ministry of Culture, India, and Japan foundation. She also participates in theatre and works with Vivadi, a theatre group comprising writers, artists, dancers, and painters.

At a ceremony in London on Thursday, the New Delhi-based writer said she was “completely overwhelmed” with the “bolt from the blue” as she accepted her prize, worth GBP 50,000 and shared with the book’s English translator, Daisy Rockwell.

In her acceptance speech, quoted by the Press Trust of India, she said being the first book in Hindi to win the prize felt good.

“Behind me and this book lies a rich and flourishing literary tradition in Hindi, and in other South Asian languages. World literature will be the richer for knowing some of the finest writers in these languages,” she said.

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The novel is set in northern India and follows an 80-year-old woman in a tale the Booker judges dubbed a “joyous cacophony” and an “irresistible novel”.

Published in Hindi in 2018 with the title Ret Samadhi, it traces the journey of Ma, who suffers from depression after the death of her husband. She then decides to travel to Pakistan, confronting trauma that has remained unresolved since she was a teenager who survived the horrific partition of India. 

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Shree’s novel was chosen from a shortlist of six books, the others being: ‘Cursed Bunny’ by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur from Korean; ‘A New Name: Septology VI-VII’ by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls from Norwegian; ‘Heaven’ by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Samuel Bett and David Boyd from Japanese; ‘Elena Knows’ by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle from Spanish; and ‘The Books of Jacob’ by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft from Polish.

In a BBC interview, the author said the novel tells human stories that are universal irrespective of their cultural backdrop.

“There are many stories that came together in the book… but it’s also the story of an old woman who gradually rose up from her deathbed to reinvent her life,” she said.