'Kairos', written by the German author Jenny Erpenbeck has been named the winner of the International Booker Prize 2024. The novel is the story of a destructive affair between a young woman and an older man in 1980s East Berlin. It intertwines the personal and the political as the two lovers embody East Germany’s crushed idealism, with both holding on to the past long after they know they should move on.
The winner was announced by Eleanor Wachtel, chair of the 2024 judges, at a ceremony sponsored by Maison Valentino on May 21, 2024. It was held at London’s Tate Modern and hosted by academic and broadcaster Shahidha Bari. The £50,000 ($63,573) prize is split equally between author Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann, giving each equal recognition.
A meditation on hope and disappointment, Kairos poses complex questions about freedom, loyalty, love and power. In East Berlin in 1986, a man and a woman meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married.
Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, and they embark on an affair fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain. But when she strays for a single night he cannot forgive her and a crack forms, opening up a space for cruelty, punishment and the exertion of power. And the world around them is changing too: As the German Democratic Republic (GDR) begins to crumble, so too do all the old certainties and loyalties, ushering in a new era, whos.
