Pankaj Kumar Chatterjee, the Bengali translator of Stalin’s Couch, a French novel about the Soviet ruler’s final years, has won the 7th edition of the Romain Rolland Book Prize.

Instituted in 2017 by the French Institute in India, it recognises translations of French books into Indian languages, including English. 

This is the second time a Bengali translator has won the prize, with Trinanjan Chakraborty winning for Kamel Daoud’s Meursault, contre-enquête in 2022.