On Monday, October 17, the much-anticipated winner of the 2022 Booker Prize was announced and presented by Queen Consort.
The Booker Prize was first established in 1969 and is now recognized as the leading prize for literary fiction written in English. Previous winners of the prize have been such literary giants as Iris Murdoch, Hilary Mantel and Salman Rushdie.
This year’s winner was selected from 169 titles, published between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022, first nominated by their publishers. Writers of any nationality are welcome, as long as the book is written in English and either published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.
The 2022 judging panel featured cultural historian, writer and broadcaster Neil MacGregor (Chair); academic and broadcaster Shahidha Bari; historian Helen Castor; novelist and critic M. John Harrison; and novelist, poet and professor Alain Mabanckou.
Now, without further ado, the winner of the 2022 Booker Prize is…
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Sort Of Books, W.W. Norton & Company)
Colombo, 1990: Maali Almeida is dead, and he’s as confused about how and why as you are. A Sri Lankan whodunnit and a race against time, Seven Moons is full of ghosts, gags and deep humanity. Shehan Karunatilaka’s second novel is a searing, mordantly funny satire set amid the murderous mayhem of a Sri Lanka beset by civil war.
Shehan Karunatilaka is considered one of Sri Lanka’s foremost authors. In addition to his novels, he has written rock songs, screenplays and travel stories. Karunatilaka emerged on the world literary stage in 2011, when he won the Commonwealth Prize, the DSL and Gratiaen Prize for his debut novel, Chinaman. His songs, scripts and stories have been published in Rolling Stone, GQ and National Geographic. Born in Galle, Sri Lanka, Karunatilaka grew up in Colombo, studied in New Zealand and has lived and worked in London, Amsterdam and Singapore. He currently lives in Sri Lanka. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is his long-awaited second novel. Karunatilaka has said that he first started thinking about the novel in 2009 after the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, ‘when there was a raging debate over how many civilians died and whose fault it was.’ He started writing the novel in 2014 settling on ‘a ghost story where the dead could offer their perspective.’ Karunatilaka comments that Sri Lankan authors often ‘specialize in gallows humor’ and making jokes in the face of crises.
Here also is the 2022 Booker Prize Shortlist and what the judges had to say about them:
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo (Chatto & Windus, Vintage, Penguin Random House)
“Glory is a magical crossing of the African continent in its political excesses and its wacky characters. Here the fable is never far from the reality.”
The Trees by Percival Everett (Influx Press)
“Part southern noir, part something else entirely, The Trees is a dance of death with jokes — horrifying and howlingly funny — that asks questions about history and justice and allows not a single easy answer.”
Treacle Walker by Alan Garner (4th Estate, HarperCollins)
“It’s a mysterious, beautifully written and affecting glimpse into the deep work of being human. Alan Garner’s stories always draw you relentlessly into their echoing metaphysical and emotional space: this one made some of us cry.”
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber)
“Keegan is measured and merciless as she dissects the silent acquiescence of a 1980s Irish town in the Church’s cruel treatment of unmarried mothers — and the cost of one man’s moral courage.”
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (Viking, Penguin General, Penguin Random House)
“Oh William! is one of those quietly radiant books that finds the deepest mysteries in the simplest things. Strout’s gentle reflections on marriage, family, love and loneliness are utterly piercing.”
Gaby Wood, Director of the Booker Prize Foundation, said of the Shortlist:
“When this year’s Booker Prize judges sat down to decide on their shortlist, every one of the 13 books on their longlist remained in such strong contention that they knew the meeting was likely to last all day. And indeed it did. This was not a day of arguments but of re-readings, re-configurations, relish.
“The shortlist that eventually emerged shows great geographical breadth as well as linguistic and conceptual agility. Together, these six novels look at history and at the lives of individuals with wit, courage and rage, allowing us to see the world through many sets of supremely perceptive eyes.”
This information was first presented by The Booker Prize Foundation.
