‘Hungry Ghosts’ wins 2024 Walter Scott Prize

Kevin Jared Hosein has won the £25,000 (A$47,648) Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for the novel Hungry Ghosts (Bloomsbury), reports the Bookseller.

Set in Trinidad during the 1940s, Hungry Ghosts tells the story of the marginalised Hindu communities on the island.

The judges said of the novel, which was chosen from a shortlist of six announced in May: ‘Richly imaginative, urgent and compelling, Hungry Ghosts plunges us into the turbulence of precarious lives struggling to flourish amid the vivid natural lushness of 1940s Trinidad. For the 2024 Walter Scott Prize, Kevin Jared Hosein has triumphed with a many-layered tale woven with the dexterity and alchemy of the true storyteller.’

Accepting the award, Hosein said it was ‘truly a privilege to be shortlisted and to have Trinidad and Tobago be represented on such an impressive stage’.

‘Moreover, I feel like I am accomplishing the dreams of my ancestors when they first crossed those dark seas from India almost two centuries ago,’ he added.

Category: International awards International news