Osebol by Marit Kapla, translated from Swedish by Peter Graves and Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell are joint winners of the 2022 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, which recognizes "the best eligible work of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, work of fiction for children or young adults, graphic novel or play text, written by a woman, translated into English by a translator (or translators) of any gender, and published by a U.K. or Irish publisher."
They are the first joint winners of the prize. Judges explained: "Our choice of joint winners comes not out of conflict or compromise but a shared and equal wonder at the skill and vision of both pairs of authors and translators in such wholly different genres."
Concerning the novel Tomb of Sand, judges said the author and translator "lead their readers on an uproarious, polyphonic journey through Indian domestic life and social history. The widowed, octogenarian Ma irrepressibly defies age, family and convention to take a trip crashing through every barrier that seeks to fix her role and cramp her style, as a playfully high-spirited satire embraces the darker legacies of division, prejudice and Partition."
As for the oral history Osebol: Voices from a Swedish Village, judges said the author and translator "assemble a haunting collage of testimonies from the inhabitants of a small rural community in remote woodlands. Selected, edited and laid out with truly poetic grace and flair, these intimate stories of time and place, change and loss, accumulate into an unforgettable fresco of human experience and memory in an era of transition and upheaval."