LONDON (AP) — German author Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann won the International Booker Prize for fiction Tuesday for “Kairos,” the story of a tangled love affair during the final years of East Germany’s existence.
Erpenbeck said she hoped the book would help readers learn there was more to life in the now-vanished Communist country than depicted in “The Lives of Others,” the Academy Award-winning 2006 film about pervasive state surveillance in the 1980s.
“The only thing that everybody knows is that they had a wall, they were terrorizing everyone with the Stasi, and that’s it,” she said. “That is not all there is.”
“Kairos” traces an affair from utopian beginning to bitter end, and draws parallels between personal lives and the life of the state.
The book beat five other finalists, chosen from 149 submitted novels, for the prize, which recognizes fiction from around the world that has been translated into English and published in the U.K. or Ireland. The 50,000 pounds ($64,000) in prize money is divided between author and translator.
Midwest storms: Large hail, torrential rain and tornadoes and more is coming
Biden awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to these 19 people
King Charles' longtime charity celebrates new name and US expansion at New York gala
Twins put Buxton on injured list with inflammation in troublesome knee; antsy Lewis still rehabbing
The Los Angeles Rams will hold their training camp at Loyola Marymount University this summer
Twins stretch win streak to 11 with 5
Twins put Buxton on injured list with inflammation in troublesome knee; antsy Lewis still rehabbing
April was the sixth wettest on RECORD in Britain
Macy's tops expectations for the first quarter as luxury and beauty sales shine
Bills sign WR Chase Claypool, DE Dawuane Smoot and LB Deion Jones to 1
Tennessee latest state to mandate automatic defibrillators at high schools
The spy who came from the circus: He was a favourite of George VI, a chum of Churchill