Canadian, Hungarian and British writers david zarai won the Booker Prize for Fiction on Monday. meat, The story of an ordinary man’s life spanning decades, where what’s not on the page is just as important as what’s on the page.
Zarai, 51 years old Beating five other finalists, The coveted £50,000 literary prize, which includes potential winners Andrew Miller and Kiran Desai, is up for grabs and is usually a huge boost to the winners’ sales and profile.
It was Selected from 153 novels It was announced by a panel of judges that included Irish author Roddy Doyle and the film’s stars. new york sex sarah jessica parker.
Doyle said: meat, A book called “On the mystery of living and being alive.” After a five-hour meeting, it emerged as the jury’s unanimous choice.
Zalai’s book tells the life of a quiet man Istvan progresses from a relationship with an older woman as a teenager, through his struggles as an immigrant in England, to becoming a socialite in London. The author says she wanted to write about Hungarian immigrants and “about life as a bodily experience, about what it’s like to be a living body in the world.”
Doyle, who chaired the jury, commented that Stephen belonged to a group overlooked in fiction: working-class men. He said that since reading the book, he has often seen it when passing bouncers at the entrance to pubs in Dublin.
“I feel like I can get to know him a little bit better and I’m going to take another look at him,” Doyle said. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, a funny and moving tale of working-class life in Dublin.
“He introduces us to a certain kind of man. It invites us to look beyond our faces. ”
Zarai, who was born in Canada, raised in the UK and lives in Vienna, was a finalist for the 2016 Booker Prize. “That man is A series of stories about nine very different men.
meat Although it was praised by many critics, He refused to fill in the gaps in István’s story, frustrating others. Events from his life make their way off the page, including his imprisonment in Iraq and his wartime service, but the central figure remains stubbornly expressionless, and his most common comment is “It’s okay.”
“We liked the calmness of the writing,” Doyle said. “We loved that so much was revealed without us really realizing it was being revealed… To see this guy grow and get older and learn so much about him in spite of him in some ways.
“If the gap is filled, there will be fewer books.” he commented.
Zarai was not thought to be a candidate for this year’s award, but bookmakers’ odds had increased in the days leading up to Monday’s ceremony.
According to the betting market, the favorite was Miller, a British writer of domestic dramas from the early 1960s. winter country and Indian author Desai write global stories Sonia and Sunny’s loneliness, his first novel since inheritance of loss, It won the Booker Prize in 2006.
Other finalists were “Twisted Family Saga” flashlight Written by Susan Choi. History of performance and identity audition Written by Katie Kitamura. And the midlife crisis road trip the rest of our lives Written by Ben Markovitz.
The Booker Prize was founded in 1969 and has established a reputation for transforming the careers of writers. Winners include Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Arundhati Roy, Margaret Atwood and Samantha Harvey. Who won the 2024 Space Station History Award? orbit.