Shehan Karunatilaka

Shehan Karunatilaka was born in 1975 in Galle, in southern Sri Lanka, and grew up in Colombo. He studied in New Zealand and lived and worked for periods in London, Amsterdam and Singapore. His debut novel, “Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew,” was published in 2010 and received, among other distinctions, the Commonwealth Prize. In addition to novels, he wrote rock songs, screenplays and travel literature, and contributed to international media. His second novel, “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida,” won the Booker Prize in 2022.