Sri Lankan · b. 1988
Anuk Arudpragasam writes about Sri Lanka's civil war and its aftermath with philosophical depth. His 2021 novel "A Passage North" was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, following a man traveling to the island's north to attend his former caretaker's funeral. The Sri Lankan author writes long, meditative sentences that accumulate meaning slowly, honoring the difficulty of thinking about violence and loss. His debut "The Story of a Brief Marriage" rendered wartime devastation in unflinching present tense.