Erpenbeck's novel "Kairos" depicts a turbulent love story in the final years of communist East Germany. Translator Michael Hofmann has also been honored. German author Jenny Erpenbeck has won the 2024 International Booker Prize for her novel "Kairos" (DAVID CLIFF/EPA ) German author Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann on Tuesday won the International Booker Prize for fiction for the book "Kairos.
" Unlock exclusive access to the latest news on India's general elections, only on the HT App. Download Now! Download Now! The book was chosen from 149 submissions for the UK-based award. The £50,000 ($64,000, €59,000) in prize money will be divided between the translator and the author.
Last year's winner was " Time Shelter " by Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov and translated by Angela Rodel. The Booker Prize for English-language fiction will be handed out in the fall. What did the award panel say about Erpenbeck's 'Kairos'? "Kairos" follows the story of a young woman's "destructive affair" with an older man in East Berlin in the 1980s.
Canadian broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel, who chaired the five-member panel that chose the winner, called the novel "a richly textured evocation of a tormented love affair, the entanglement of personal and national transformations." "Like [former East Germany], (the book) starts with optimism and trust, then unravels so badly," she said. "The self-absorption of the lovers, their descent into a destructive vortex, remains connected to the l.
