One of the leading Urdu novelists today, Khalid Jawed wrote 'Nemat Khana' in 2014. Bringing his work to a wider audience, the book was translated from Urdu to English by Baran Farooqi and published as 'The Paradise of Food' earlier in 2022.

Jawed received the prize money of Rs 25 lakh along with a trophy - a sculpture by Delhi artist duo Thukral and Tagra, titled 'Mirror Melting.'

Baran Farooqi also received an additional Rs 10 lakh for the award.

"In 'Nemat Khana', his novel published in Urdu, Khalid Jawed investigates the disease and squalor of domestic existence through the metaphor of the kitchen or the pantry. Food and sustenance make human life go, but they also corrupt human life," reads the book's introduction.