Geetanjali Shree, the first Indian writer to win the International Booker Prize, was congratulated by the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), her alma mater, for her achievement. This happened on May 28, Saturday.

The author, who is based in New Delhi, won the coveted award for her book Tomb of Sand, originally titled Ret Samadhi.

"Many Congratulations to JNU alumna, Geetanjali Shree to be the first hindi author to win International Booker Prize 2022", tweeted JNU at 12.54 pm on May 28. 

The book tells the story of an 80-year-old woman and this is the same book that Booker judges dubbed a "joyous cacophony" and an "irresistible novel", as stated in a copy by PTI. 

It was at a ceremony in London on Thursday, May 26, that the writer expressed how overwhelmed she was with the "bolt from the blue". She accepted her prize, worth GBP 50,000, which was shared equally with Daisy Rockwell, the English translator of the book. 

The book was originally published in Hindi in the year 2018. It was only in August 2021 that the book was published in English in the UK by Axis Press in August 2021.

This year, the judges considered 135 books and for the first time in 2022, all shortlisted authors and translators will each receive GBP 2,500, increased from GBP 1,000 in the previous years – bringing the total value of the prize to GBP 80,000.