The Booker Prize 2022, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, has gone to The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, a Sri Lankan writer also known for his rock songs, screenplays and travel stories. The novel, Karunatilaka’s second, is a satire based in war-torn Sri Lanka, surrounding the life of a war photographer who goes on a journalistic mission in his afterlife. Karunatilaka will receive £50,000 as prize money.

Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize has a reputation for transforming writers’ careers and was originally open to British, Irish and Commonwealth writers. Eligibility was expanded in 2014 to all novels in English published in the U.K.