Who among the following is the author of the book, Tomb of Sand?
- (a)Arundhati Roy
- (b)Geetanjali Shree
- (c)Chetan Bhagat
- (d)Jhumpa Lahiri
Correct — B, Geetanjali Shree. 'Tomb of Sand' is Daisy Rockwell's English translation of Geetanjali Shree's Hindi novel 'Ret Samadhi'. It won the International Booker Prize in 2022 — the first novel written in any Indian language to do so — and, as that prize always does, the money was shared equally between the author and the translator.
- (a)Arundhati Roy — Roy is a Booker-winning Indian novelist, but she writes in English and 'Tomb of Sand' is not her book. She is placed here precisely because a student who remembers only 'famous Indian Booker winner' will reach for her.
- (c)Chetan Bhagat — Chetan Bhagat is a popular English-language novelist with no connection to 'Tomb of Sand' or to the International Booker Prize.
- (d)Jhumpa Lahiri — Jhumpa Lahiri is a well-known author writing in English; 'Tomb of Sand' is not hers, and the book that won in 2022 was a translation from Hindi.
The International Booker Prize is awarded every year for a single work of fiction translated into English, and its prize money of fifty thousand pounds is split equally between the author and the translator. It is a distinct award from the Booker Prize proper, which honours fiction originally written in English. Before 2016 the older Man Booker International was given once every two years for an author's whole body of work.
Three of the four names are famous Indian-origin authors who write in English, and the fourth writes in Hindi. That is the whole trap. 'Tomb of Sand' is a translated title, so the author has to be someone writing in an Indian language — which points straight to Geetanjali Shree. Anchor the fact to the September 2022 exam, when this was the first and only Indian-language winner of the prize; an Indian-language work has won again since, with Banu Mushtaq's Kannada collection 'Heart Lamp', translated by Deepa Bhasthi, taking the 2025 International Booker.
- 'Tomb of Sand' is Daisy Rockwell's English translation of Geetanjali Shree's Hindi novel 'Ret Samadhi'.
- It won the 2022 International Booker Prize — the first book written in an Indian language to win it.
- The International Booker Prize is awarded annually for a single translated work, and its fifty thousand pounds is split equally between author and translator.
- The Booker Prize proper is a separate award, given for fiction originally written in English.
- Assuming the most famous Indian-origin author in the option list must be the answer.
- Confusing the International Booker, for translated fiction with the prize shared by author and translator, with the Booker Prize for English-language fiction.
A one-line 'who wrote this book' recall, using well-known Indian-origin English-language authors as decoys around one Indian-language writer.
For which one of the following books did Kiran Desai win the Man Booker Prize 2006?
- (a) The Secret River
- (b) In the Country of Men
- (c) The Inheritance of Loss
- (d) Mother's Milk
Answer(c) The Inheritance of Loss
The same author-and-award pairing tested by UPSC, and a useful contrast — Kiran Desai's win was in the Booker Prize for fiction written in English, while Geetanjali Shree's was in the International Booker for a work translated into English.
Who among the following is the author of the book ‘Why Bharat Matters’?
- (a) L.K. Advani
- (b) S. Jaishankar
- (c) Mohan Bhagwat
- (d) Pranab Mukherjee
Answer(b) S. Jaishankar
The same question format two years later — NDA regularly asks who wrote a book that was in the news in the months before the exam, so tracking the year's major literary and policy titles pays off directly.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'Tomb of Sand' is the English translation of which Hindi novel?
- (a)Godaan
- (b)Ret Samadhi
- (c)Gunahon Ka Devta
- (d)Raag Darbari
Answer(b) Ret Samadhi — Geetanjali Shree's novel, translated by Daisy Rockwell.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The prize money of the International Booker Prize is
- (a)given to the author only
- (b)given to the translator only
- (c)shared equally between the author and the translator
- (d)given to the publisher
Answer(c) shared equally between the author and the translator — which is why translators are named alongside authors when the prize is announced.