Geetanjali Shree
India
Born in 1957 in Manipuri in northern India, Geetanjali Shree began her career as a historian and sociologist, researching the role of intellectuals in the Indian independence movement. She turned to writing literature in 1990 and has created an extensive oeuvre of novels, short stories, and stage works. In 2022, Shree won the International Booker Prize for her novel Tomb of Sand. Unlike most Indian writers, she does not write in English—the language that continues to dominate the literary landscape in India more than 75 years after their secession from Great Britain—but in Hindi.
Geetanjali Shree’s debut novel, Mai, portrays the title character through the eyes of her daughter Sunaina. Sunaina finds it increasingly difficult to accept the fact that Mai conforms to traditional expectations: she is responsible for everything in the home but invisible to society. The author exposes the complex social fabric within families and the alienating effect of rules and conventions by creating a language that reflects the novel’s dynamic: “The serene, almost chatty tone of the narrative glides over emotional abysses that appear only briefly because their existence is not recognized,” Katharina Granzin writes in the taz. “But they continue to resonate long after.”
Our City That Year. Translated by Daisy Rockwell. Novel. 2025
The Empty Space. Translated by Nivedita Menon. Novel. 2016
Mai. Translated by Nita Kumar. Novel. 2004
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