GEORGE SAUNDERS’ LINCOLN IN THE BARDO WINS MAN BOOKER
American author George Saunders has won the 2017 Man Booker Prize, a high-profile literary award, for his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, — a fictional account of US President Abraham Lincoln burying his young son.
In his acceptance speech, Saunders, 58, noted that “we live in a strange time,” adding he saw the key question of the era being whether society responded to events with “exclusion and negative projection and violence,” or “with love.”
Saunders was the second consecutive American writer to win the prize, after the rules were changed in 2014 to allow authors of any book written in English and published in the UK to compete.
His novel, set in 1862, a year into the American Civil war, is a blend of historical accounts and imaginative fiction, which sees Lincoln’s son Willie, who died in the White House at age 11, in “Bardo” — a Tibetan form of purgatory.
The judging panel, led by author and member of Britain’s House of Lords Lola Young, praised the “deeply moving” book, saying it was “utterly original”.
"The form and style of this utterly original novel reveals a witty, intelligent, and deeply moving narrative," said Lola Young, chair of the judging panel, in announcing the prize at a ceremony in London.
Saunders was presented with his award by the Duchess of Cornwall.
This year's Man Booker Prize shortlist pitted three US and three British writers against one another.
Last year, American Paul Beatty won the award for his novel The Sellout, a tale of an artisanal marijuana grower who attempts to introduce slavery to his Los Angeles neighbourhood.
Other previous winners have included this year’s Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro and Canadian writer Margaret Atwood.
The award was previously open only to writers from Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe or countries in the British Commonwealth. The winner receives a 50,000 pound ($65,000) cash prize.
The award, launched in 1969, was only open to writers from Commonwealth states until it began permitting authors from other English-speaking countries in 2014.