Novel by Sri Lanka's Shehan Karunatilaka wins Booker Prize
London (AP): Writer Shehan Karunatilaka won the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction for "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida," a satirical "afterlife noir" set during Sri Lanka's brutal civil war.
Karunatilaka, one of Sri Lanka's leading authors, won the 50,000 pound (USD 57,000) award on Monday for his second novel. The 47-year-old, who has also written journalism, children's books, screenplays and rock songs, is the second Sri Lanka-born Booker Prize winner, after Michael Ondaatje, who took the trophy in 1992 for "The English Patient."
Karunatilaka received the award from Camilla, Britain's queen consort, during a ceremony at London's Roundhouse concert hall.
The judges' unanimous choice, "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida" is the darkly humorous story about a murdered war photographer investigating his death and trying to ensure his life's legacy.
Karunatilaka said Sri Lankans "specialise in gallows humour and make jokes in the face of crises".
"It's our coping mechanism," he said, and expressed hope that his novel about war and ethnic division would one day be "in the fantasy section of the bookshop."
Former British Museum director Neil MacGregor, who chaired the judging panel, said judges chose the book for "the ambition, the scope and the skill, the daring, the audacity and the hilarity of the execution."
"It's a book that takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey through life and death, right to what the author describes as the dark heart of the world," MacGregor said. "And there the reader finds to their surprise, joy, tenderness, love and loyalty."
The winner was chosen over five other finalists: American authors Percival Everett for "The Trees" and Elizabeth Strout for "Oh William!"; "Glory" by Zimbabwe's NoViolet Bulawayo; Irish writer Claire Keegan's "Small Things Like These"; and "Treacle Walker" by British writer Alan Garner.
Karunatilaka paid tribute to his fellow authors on the 13-book longlist and six-book shortlist for the prize.
"It's been a hell of a ride, and I've been expecting to get off at each stop," he said.
The five-member jury read 170 novels before choosing a winner. MacGregor said all the books explored the actions of individuals in a world "where fixed points are moving, disintegrating."
He said "what's striking in all of them is the weight of history" from the legacy of racism in the United States to colonialism and repression in Zimbabwe and how that shapes the choices and actions of individuals.
"History as a player in contemporary politics is, I think, one of the things that emerges from most of the shortlist books," MacGregor said. "Which is hardly surprising, given the current debates about history."
"All these books show why it (history) has to be taught, addressed and discussed because otherwise we can't understand the framework within which people have to make the big choices, the essential choices, of their lives," he said.
Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize has a reputation for transforming writers' careers. It was originally open to British, Irish and Commonwealth writers but eligibility was expanded in 2014 to all novels in English published in the UK.
Last year's winner was "The Promise," by South Africa's Damon Galgut.
The event was the first fully in-person Booker ceremony since the pre-pandemic event in 2019 and the first for longtime literacy champion Camilla since her husband became King Charles III last month after the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II.
The event also included a speech from singer-songwriter Dua Lipa about her love of reading, and a reflection from writer Elif Shafak on what the attack on novelist Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed onstage in August, means for writers around the world.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
