KARACHI: One of the eagerly awaited sessions on the second day of the 14th Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) was a conversation with last year’s Booker prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka.

The session — Seven Moons of Maali Almeida: A Tale of Pathos, Humour and Satire — was moderated by Safinah Danish Elahi. On receiving the most obvious query as to how it feels to be a Booker winner, Karunatilaka replied that he’s been asked the question 70 times. He said the book took a long time to write, many re-writes, many conversations saying it’s complicated, may not find a publisher outside the subcontinent.

Booker prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka shares his thoughts at a KLF session

Recalling the year 2022, he said, “I was caught up in all that drama [in Sri Lanka], standing in petrol queues, storming the president’s palace and all of that. I knew that the book was coming out in August and there wasn’t a big rush to review it outside the subcontinent. Then in August when my wife was in the petrol queue and I was taking my kids to class, I received a call that ‘we’ve been longlisted for the Booker’. I thought to myself at least I can now get it reviewed. And then the dice rolled again and a six came up and my name was in the shortlist. I knew now I’d get to travel to London, do some scary panel discussions and definitely get a proper launch. That helped… It’s been very strange since then. It’s been my 10th lit-fest in 10 weeks.”

Answering a question about suddenly getting known in the entire world, he said, “This is the thing. While you’re writing you’re in your room, spending eight or nine hours there, and most of the time you’re talking to yourself, talking to imaginary characters… Now you go to places and do photo shoots. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, it’s been tremendous. I had a day job as a copywriter, now I’m travelling around the world talking about my book, so it’s wonderful. But I’m looking forward to going back to my boring life, sitting in my room, not talking to anyone. It’s been a hell of a ride. What a year it’s been.”

In response to another question, Mr Karunatilaka said, “When you’re sitting in Colombo, writing stories of a left arm spinner [reference to his earlier book Chinaman] all I’m thinking is that it’s a god story because I’ve been fascinated by these mystery spinners [that Sri Lanka cricket often produces]… We have a shortage of petrol, gas, competent leaders. So, when you’re writing such a story, you’re not thinking about having a writing career. To my surprise, it got published not just in the subcontinent but in the UK and America. After that they asked me, what’s your next book, and I hadn’t really thought about it.” Thereafter, the idea for a story of a ghost came to him which resulted in the form of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida that earned him the Booker.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2023