Shehan Karunatilaka won acclaim by writing like a 'drunk uncle'

Booker Prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka knew he could not emulate the highly edited styles of his literary idols Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy, so he did the exact opposite. "I can definitely write like a drunk uncle telling a story."

- Shawn Hoo

He was speaking at the quarter-filled 673-seater Victoria Concert Hall for the Singapore Writers Festival (SWF), which runs till Nov 17.

In an entertaining conversation with former SWF director Pooja Nansi on Nov 10, the festival headliner talked about having 30 pages slashed by his editor into two sentences and the rambling art of cricket commentary.

"I've read all my one-starred reviews who couldn't get past the first 30 pages," said the Sri Lankan writer with a chuckle. He is best known for The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida (2022) - a ghost story of a whodunnit which snagged the Booker Prize in 2022 - and cricket novel Chinaman: The Legend Of Pradeep Mathew (2010).

But stick with the South Asian uncle through his seemingly digressive narrative, and you will reach a moment when everything suddenly makes sense, Karunatilaka said.