SOURCE: INDIAN EXPRESS

After Geetanjali Shree in 2022, Tamil writer Perumal Murugan’s Pyre makes it to the International Booker longlist

International Booker nomination important for Tamil, non-Hindi language literature, says Murugan

Pyre, Tamil writer Perumal Murugan’s novel about caste-based hatred, along with 12 other books, made it to the longlist of the International Booker Prize 2023. Murugan’s 2013 book was translated into English by Anirudhh Vasudevan in 2016.

The prize, worth £50,000 (Rs 50 lakh), is awarded annually for a novel or short story collection written in any language, translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. The prize money is split equally between the author and translator of the winning book.

Talking about the nomination to the prize, Murugan said, “This is the first time a Tamil novel has made it to the long list. It is very important for the language. It is significant not because it is my novel but because the selection is an acknowledgement of the literature in Tamil, in India,”

Speaking about the importance of the selection of a Tamil novel, the author adds, “English and Hindi are spoken as Indian languages whereas the others are classified as regional tongues. That is wrong. That sort of perception will change when books from our languages — southern languages as well as non-Hindi languages from the North — make it to international award lists.”