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The Hindi novel 'Tomb of Sand,' by author Geetanjali Shree, has become the first book in any Indian language to receive the coveted International Booker Prize.

The New Delhi-based writer said she was "totally overwhelmed" by the "bolt from the blue" as she took her prize, worth GBP 50,000 and shared with the book's English translator, Daisy Rockwell, during a ceremony in London on Thursday (May 26, 2022).

'Tomb of Sand,' originally titled 'Ret Samadhi,' is set in northern India and follows an 80-year-old woman in a story described as a "joyous cacophony" and a "irresistible novel" by the Booker judges.

"However, there is a rich and flourishing literary legacy in Hindi and other South Asian languages behind me and this work." Knowing some of the best writers in these languages can enrich world literature. "An interaction like this will broaden one's life vocabulary," she predicted.

Rockwell, a Vermont-based painter, writer, and translator, joined her on stage to accept her award for translating the novel she called a "love letter to the Hindi language."

"In the end, we were charmed by the strength, poignancy, and playfulness of 'Tomb of Sand,' Geetanjali Shree's polyphonic novel of identity and belonging, in Daisy Rockwell's exuberant, coruscating translation," Frank Wynne, head of the judging panel, stated.

"This is a brilliant novel about India and division," he observed, "but one whose mesmerising brio and strong compassion knits youth and age, male and female, family and nation into a kaleidoscopic whole."

To her family's dismay, the book's 80-year-old protagonist, Ma, persists on visiting Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved anguish of her youthful Partition memories and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, and a feminist.