Geetanjali Shree is the first Indian to win the International Booker Prize. She won it in 2022 for her Hindi novel Tomb of Sand.

Quick Scoop

  • Winner: Geetanjali Shree.
  • Book: Tomb of Sand.
  • Significance: it marked the first time an Indian writer won the International Booker Prize.

Context

The novel is a family story set against the Partition of India, and the judges praised it as a “luminous novel of India and partition”.

A common point of confusion is the Booker Prize versus the International Booker Prize: Geetanjali Shree is the first Indian to win the International Booker Prize, while Arundhati Roy was the first Indian citizen to win the Booker Prize.

TL;DR

Geetanjali Shree, for Tomb of Sand , was the first Indian winner of the International Booker Prize.