image source, Perumal Murugan
Perumal Murugan
Pyre, an English translation of Perumal Murugan’s novel Pookkuzhi, has been shortlisted for the Booker International Prize. This is the first time that a novel written in Tamil is included in this list.
The Booker International Prize is awarded annually to a collection of short stories or a novel written in one language, translated into English, and published in Britain and Ireland. The award-winning novel will receive an award of £50,000. It is shared equally by the narrator and the translator.
Before the Booker International Prize is announced, a list of shortlisted novels is published. It is called Longlist. It is considered a great honor to be included in this list.
The shortlist for the 2023 Booker Prize has now been announced. 13 novels written in 11 languages are included in the list this time.
Novels such as Pyre written and translated in Tamil, Ninth Building written and translated in Chinese, Swedish novel A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding are included in this list.
This is the first time that fictions written in Tamil, Bulgarian and Catalan have been included in the shortlist.
Perumal Murugan’s novel ‘Pookkuzhi’ is a novel serialized in Kalki Weekly. Kalachavadu published it as a book.
Kumaresan, a young man who leaves his village to work, falls in love with and marries Saroja, who lives near where he is staying. Both belong to different castes. Saroja is a caste girl.
At one point Kumaresan brings Saroja to his hometown. Kumaresan’s mother, who lives in extreme poverty but lives with caste pride, disapproves of this marriage. Kumaresan continues to hide his wife’s caste from his mother and village. At one point the village tries to kill Saroja, knowing that her caste is below them in the social hierarchy. What happened to Saroja and Kumaresan after that is the rest of the story of this novel.
“There are many angles to the murders. Either the man or the woman belongs to the oppressed caste, anything can happen. At the end, I would have left it unclear what happened to the woman, and I would have ended it in a hopeful way. The prince’s death happened in Dharmapuri when I was writing this novel as a serial in Kalki. So when this novel became a book, it was for the prince. Submitted,” Perumal Murugan told BBC Tamil.
He says that the inclusion of a novel written in Tamil in this list is very important for Tamil. “Only when our works are translated into English and other languages can we get such recognition.
We have that much qualification and quality. But, we have a lot of skepticism in carrying it like that. If we go through that, we will definitely get this kind of recognition,” says Perumal Murugan.
Anirudh Vasudevan’s English translation of the novel ‘Pookkuzhi’ was first published by Penguin. In Britain it was published by Pushkin Press.
Kannan, the publisher of Kalachuvadu Publishing House, who published the novel ‘Pookkuzhi’ in Tamil, played an important role in bringing this novel to other languages.
“Any work published in Tamil and English in India is not likely to feature in this list. The work has to be published in Britain and Ireland. So this cannot happen alone. Professionals must join the effort. Copyrights must be sold properly. Only then can such a prize list be included,” says Kannan.
The list is compiled from 134 books published between May 1, 2022 and April 30, 2023. From this, 6 books will be selected (shortlist) and announced at the London Book Fair on 18th April.
The winner of The International Booker Prize will be announced at a ceremony in London on 23 May. Last year, the prize went to the novel Tomb of Sand written by Geetanjali Sri and translated by Daisy Rockwell. This award was won for a novel written in Hindi, which was the first time.
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