"Winning the prize means so much … If you are a Sri Lankan writing in English you can't expect to be published outside Sri Lanka. "Whenever the Sri Lankan cricket team loses, something good happens to the book, so as they got thrashed last night I was pretty confident," he said. Speaking to the Guardian, Karunatilaka said it was a "huge surprise" to win – although the fact that the Sri Lankan cricket team lost to Pakistan on Thursday had made him quietly positive, he joked. Karunatilaka beat names including Ondaatje winner Rahul Bhattacharya to take the prize, which was presented at the Hay festival on Friday afternoon by the award-winning Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The award, won in the past by Peter Carey, Christos Tsiolkas and Aminatta Forna, has been relaunched this year by the Commonwealth Foundation's Commonwealth writers' programme to target and identify new talent, and goes to a first novel. "It's an insightful story about fact and gullibility, about world history, about friends and family sets the standard high for the new Commonwealth book prize." "This fabulously enjoyable read will keep you entertained and rooting for the protagonist until the very end, while delivering startling truths about cricket and about Sri Lanka," said chair Margaret Busby.
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