Award-Winning Books — Study Notes

Overview

Award-winning books form a regular component of SSC MTS General Awareness, typically contributing 1–2 questions per paper. These questions test your knowledge of major literary awards (Booker Prize, Pulitzer, Nobel, Sahitya Akademi, Jnanpith) and the Indian and international authors who have won them. The exam focuses on high-profile winners from recent years and landmark historical winners that every educated person should know.

You must memorize author-book pairs for at least the last 3–5 years of major awards, plus classic winners that frequently appear. The questions are straightforward recall: "Who won the Booker Prize for *The God of Small Things*?" or "Which book won Arundhati Roy the Booker Prize?" You may also see questions about the nationality of an author or the language of the original work. This topic rewards systematic memorization and regular current affairs reading.

Focus on the Booker Prize (especially Indian winners), Nobel Prize in Literature (recent laureates), Jnanpith Award (Hindi and regional language authors), Sahitya Akademi Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. These five awards cover 80% of exam questions on this topic.

Key Concepts

• **Booker Prize (now Booker Prize for Fiction)**: Awarded annually for the best novel written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. Indian authors have been prominent winners — Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Aravind Adiga, Kiran Desai. From 2014–2018 it was called the Man Booker Prize; reverted to Booker Prize from 2019.

• **Nobel Prize in Literature**: Awarded by the Swedish Academy for outstanding contributions to literature. Focuses on an author's entire body of work, not a single book. Recent winners include Abdulrazak Gurnah (2021), Louise Glück (2020), and Bob Dylan (2016, controversial as a musician).

• **Jnanpith Award**: India's highest literary honour, given by Bharatiya Jnanpith for outstanding contribution to Indian literature. Recognizes work in any of the 22 scheduled languages. Authors like Amitav Ghosh, Damodar Mauzo, and Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri are recent recipients.

• **Sahitya Akademi Award**: Presented by India's National Academy of Letters for the best book in each of the 24 major Indian languages annually. More regional in scope than Jnanpith; multiple awards each year make it harder to memorize exhaustively, so focus on Hindi, English, and your state language.

• **Pulitzer Prize**: American award for achievements in journalism, literature, and musical composition. Categories include Fiction, Drama, History, Biography, Poetry, and General Non-Fiction. Indian-origin authors like Jhumpa Lahiri have won in Fiction.

• **Recent trend**: Questions increasingly focus on 2018–present winners. Update your notes annually with the previous year's major award winners as part of current affairs revision.

• **Author nationality matters**: Some questions ask "Which Indian author won…?" or test whether you know Gabriel García Márquez was Colombian, not Spanish. Always note the author's country.

• **Book vs. Award confusion**: Students often remember the author but mix up which book won which award. If an author has won multiple awards, be clear about which book earned which prize.

Formulas / Key Facts

**Booker Prize — Indian Winners**

• **Salman Rushdie** — *Midnight's Children* (1981); also won Booker of Bookers (1993, 2008)
• **Arundhati Roy** — *The God of Small Things* (1997)
• **Kiran Desai** — *The Inheritance of Loss* (2006)
• **Aravind Adiga** — *The White Tiger* (2008)

**Nobel Prize in Literature — Recent Winners**

• **2023: Jon Fosse** (Norway) — plays and novels in Norwegian Nynorsk
• **2022: Annie Ernaux** (France) — autobiographical novelist
• **2021: Abdulrazak Gurnah** (Tanzania/UK) — novels on refugee experience
• **2020: Louise Glück** (USA) — poet
• **2017: Kazuo Ishiguro** (UK/Japan) — *The Remains of the Day*, *Never Let Me Go*
• **2016: Bob Dylan** (USA) — singer-songwriter; first musician to win

**Jnanpith Award — Recent Winners**

• **2022: Damodar Mauzo** (Konkani novelist)
• **2021: Damodar Mauzo** (announced; awarded 2023)
• **2020: Nilmani Phookan** (Assamese poet)
• **2019: Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri** (Malayalam poet)
• **2018: Amitav Ghosh** (English novelist — *The Shadow Lines*, *The Glass Palace*)

**Sahitya Akademi Award — High-Profile Winners**

• **Ruskin Bond** — multiple awards for English children's and short-story writing
• **Kamala Das / Kamala Surayya** — English and Malayalam poet
• Recent winners: Track annually in current affairs; exam usually asks about Hindi or English winners

**Pulitzer Prize — Indian-Origin Winners**

• **Jhumpa Lahiri** — *Interpreter of Maladies* (2000, Fiction)
• **Geeta Anand** — *The Cure* (2000, Investigative Reporting; not Fiction)

**Other Important Awards**

• **International Booker Prize**: Separate award for fiction translated into English; won by Geetanjali Shree (*Tomb of Sand*, 2022 — first Hindi novel to win)
• **DSC Prize for South Asian Literature**: Covers authors from South Asia; Cyrus Mistry, Jeet Thayil are past winners

Worked Examples

**Example 1**: Which Indian author won the Booker Prize for *The White Tiger*? *Solution*: Aravind Adiga won the Booker Prize in 2008 for *The White Tiger*, a darkly comic novel about class and corruption in modern India.

**Example 2**: Name the first Hindi novel to win the International Booker Prize. *Solution*: *Tomb of Sand* (*Ret Samadhi* in Hindi) by Geetanjali Shree, translated by Daisy Rockwell, won the International Booker Prize in 2022. It is the first work in any Indian language to win this prize.

**Example 3**: Who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021? *Solution*: Abdulrazak Gurnah, a Tanzanian-British novelist, won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee."

Common Mistakes

• **Mixing up Booker and International Booker**: The Booker Prize is for English-language novels published in UK/Ireland. The International Booker Prize is for translated works. Students often confuse Arundhati Roy's Booker with Geetanjali Shree's International Booker. **Fix**: Remember "International Booker = translation prize."

• **Confusing which book won the award**: Salman Rushdie has written many famous books (*The Satanic Verses*, *Shame*), but *Midnight's Children* won the Booker Prize. Students often say the wrong title. **Fix**: Create author-book flashcards; test yourself on the exact winning title.

• **Assuming all Nobel laureates are novelists**: The Nobel Prize in Literature includes poets (Louise Glück), playwrights (Harold Pinter), and essayists. Bob Dylan won as a songwriter. **Fix**: Don't assume "literature = fiction." Check the genre of each winner.

• **Outdated information**: Using old notes from 2–3 years ago means missing recent winners, which exams heavily favor. **Fix**: Update your award-winner list every January with the previous year's major prizes.

• **Ignoring regional language awards**: SSC exams often ask about Jnanpith or Sahitya Akademi winners in Hindi, Malayalam, or Assamese, not just English. **Fix**: Memorize at least 2–3 recent Jnanpith winners and their languages.

Quick Reference

• **Indian Booker winners**: Rushdie (*Midnight's Children*), Roy (*God of Small Things*), Desai (*Inheritance of Loss*), Adiga (*White Tiger*) • **First Hindi International Booker**: Geetanjali Shree — *Tomb of Sand* (2022) • **Jnanpith 2018**: Amitav Ghosh (English novelist) • **Nobel 2021**: Abdulrazak Gurnah (Tanzania/UK) • **Nobel 2020**: Louise Glück (American poet) • **Pulitzer Fiction (Indian-origin)**: Jhumpa Lahiri — *Interpreter of Maladies* (2000)