Shehan Karunatilaka
Who was Shehan Karunatilaka?
Won the 2022 Booker Prize for his novel "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida," making him the second Sri Lankan author to receive this prestigious literary award.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Shehan Karunatilaka (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Shehan Karunatilaka, born in 1975 in Galle, Sri Lanka, grew up in Colombo before studying abroad. He attended S. Thomas' Preparatory School and then Whanganui Collegiate School in New Zealand. He furthered his studies at Massey University in New Zealand. His life took him across multiple continents, including extended stays in London, Amsterdam, and Singapore. This experience, marked by moving and observing from afar, greatly influenced his development as a writer who focuses on Sri Lankan identity, history, and mythology.
In 2010, Karunatilaka published his first novel, "Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew." The story follows W.G. Karunasena, a dying, alcoholic sports journalist, who is obsessively searching for a missing Sri Lankan cricket bowler. With a mix of cricket statistics, political history, and personal breakdown, the novel paints a picture of Sri Lanka during its civil conflict. It received widespread acclaim, winning the Commonwealth Book Prize, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and the Gratiaen Prize. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack named it the second greatest cricket book of all time, establishing Karunatilaka as a leading literary figure from the area.
His second novel, "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida," was released by Sort of Books in 2022. Set in Colombo in 1990, during Sri Lanka's civil war, the story is narrated by Maali Almeida, a war photographer who finds himself dead and must navigate an afterlife bureaucracy to ensure his archive of incriminating photos reaches the living. The book uses a second-person narrative and draws on Sri Lankan folklore and supernatural elements to tackle issues of political violence and moral compromise. It won the 2022 Booker Prize on October 17, 2022, making Karunatilaka the second Sri Lankan author to receive the award.
Karunatilaka is known for his creative storytelling and his use of genres like crime fiction, fantasy, and ghost stories to explore serious historical and political themes. His fiction often revisits the Sri Lankan civil war and its consequences, blending seriousness with dark humor. His international education and time living outside Sri Lanka provide his writing with an outsider's perspective while still deeply engaging with the culture and history of his home country.
Before Fame
Karunatilaka was born in Galle in 1975 and grew up in Colombo during escalating civil conflict in Sri Lanka. The war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which grew worse in the 1980s and 1990s, shaped his early years. He went to S. Thomas' Preparatory School before moving to New Zealand for secondary and higher education, attending Whanganui Collegiate School and later Massey University. Being abroad gave him some distance from the conflict at home while deepening his understanding of Sri Lanka as a subject for literature.
After finishing his studies, Karunatilaka worked in advertising and lived in several cities around the world, including London, Amsterdam, and Singapore. He spent years working on his first novel while employed in creative roles, which gave him a broad stylistic range and an understanding of popular culture alongside his literary goals. Chinaman, published in 2010, drew on his knowledge of cricket, journalism, and Sri Lankan political history, and its success marked him as an important new voice in South Asian literature.
Key Achievements
- Won the 2022 Booker Prize for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, becoming the second Sri Lankan author to receive the award.
- Debut novel Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew won the Commonwealth Book Prize, DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and the Gratiaen Prize.
- Chinaman was ranked the second greatest cricket book of all time by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
- Established a distinctive literary voice combining genre fiction, dark humour, and political history in a body of work centred on Sri Lanka's civil war period.
- Won the Gratiaen Prize, Sri Lanka's most prestigious English-language literary award, founded by Michael Ondaatje.
Did You Know?
- 01.Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew was ranked the second greatest cricket book of all time by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, the sport's most authoritative annual publication.
- 02.The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is narrated in the second person, addressing a dead war photographer as 'you' as he moves through a purgatorial afterlife modelled partly on Sri Lankan Buddhist cosmology.
- 03.Karunatilaka worked in advertising for a significant portion of his career, living and working across London, Amsterdam, and Singapore before his literary reputation was fully established.
- 04.He attended Whanganui Collegiate School in New Zealand, a boarding school that placed him far from Sri Lanka during his adolescence, an experience that informed his perspective as a writer returning imaginatively to his homeland.
- 05.Chinaman won four major literary prizes, including the Commonwealth Book Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, making it one of the most decorated debut novels to emerge from Sri Lanka.
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Booker Prize | 2022 | — |