Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has been crowned the Booker Prize winner for his book The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida.
Published by the independent press Sort Of Books, it is a darkly comic murder mystery set in Colombo in 1990 during the Sri Lankan civil war. It follows Maali Almeida, a war photographer, gambler and closeted homosexual as he tries to find out who killed him.
It is only the 47-year-old’s second novel, but he picked up the £50,000 first prize and the award which was presented to him by the Queen Consort, at the Roundhouse in London. Literature lover Camilla was there with her sister Annabel Elliot and Karunatilaka was thrilled to meet her.
“Apparently she’s started my book,” he said, before telling her that he had been taking the children to school, while his wife was in a four-day petrol queue, when he found out he had been shortlisted. “And yeah, that’s when I got the text.
“And that night a friend came over and goes, ‘wow, congratulations, full tank of petrol. Oh by the way, well done on the Booker’.
“And he was only half joking.”
Talking to reporters ahead of the ceremony, he said: “I thought it was a good book. I done my best, but I put it out there and moved on.
“But now it means it’s getting reviewed, it’s getting talked about, it’s selling copies. So yeah, that’s wonderful, but you don’t expect it when you finish it.”
One of the first people Camilla met was Dua Lipa, who delivered a speech at the event about her love of reading. During her conversation with the Queen Consort, the New Rules singer appeared to say “no singing tonight”, but she later led a rendition of Happy Birthday to shortlisted author Alan Garner, who turned 88 on Monday.
Eve Smith, secretary of the Booker Prize Foundation, said Camilla really enjoyed the event. She said: “It’s great to have Her Majesty here because she does really take an interest in the authors, and even if she can’t come in previous years she’s always made sure that she sees them, whether it was at St James’s Palace.
“And so when we found out that she was going to come – we’d sort of assumed that she wouldn’t, just, you know, when the Queen died and she became the Queen Consort, we sort of assumed this might be one of the things that she had to let go. But no, she’s here, so it’s great.
“She enjoys being here. I think it’s one of those things where, although there is obviously formality around it, there is also a degree of of informality that she really appreciates.”
Percival Everett, shortlisted author of The Trees, said it was “very nice news” to find out he was on the shortlist. He said: “First of all I thought my publisher was kidding me.”
The other shortlisted works of fiction this year were Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo, Treacle Walker by Garner, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan and Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout.
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