Shehan Karunatilaka

1975–

Sri Lankan novelist born in Galle and raised in Colombo. He studied English literature at Massey University in New Zealand and worked as an advertising copywriter, while also writing journalism and playing in rock bands. His debut novel, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew (2010), a story steeped in cricket, won the Gratiaen Prize, the Commonwealth Book Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022), reworked from his earlier novel Chats with the Dead, follows a murdered war photographer through the afterlife and won the 2022 Booker Prize.

Timeline of Shehan Karunatilaka’s life

Works

Prizes