SAUNDERS WINS MAN BOOKER
George Saunders becomes the second American to win the Man Booker Prize. ››
LONDON: American author George Saunders won the 2017 Man Booker prize on Tuesday for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo, a fictional account of former US President Abraham Lincoln’s grief after his son’s death.
The novel’s form was described by Lola Young, chair of the 2017 judging panel, as “utterly original” and “reveals a witty, intelligent and deeply moving narrative”.
Saunders, 58 and based in New York, received £50,000 prize money for winning what is regarded as one of literature’s most prestigious recognitions during a ceremony at The Guild hall.
Saunders’ first full-length novel is set in a single night in Bardo, a Tibetan form of a purgatory, telling the story of Lincoln’s grief after the death of his young son, and his visits to his tomb. The plot is based on a real visit President Abraham Lincoln made in 1862 to the body of his 11-year-old son Willie in a Washington cemetery.
By turns witty, bawdy, poetic and unsettling, Lincoln in the Bardo juxtaposes the real events of the US Civil War — through passages from historians both real and fictional — with a chorus of characters male and female, young and old.
A former oil-industry engineer , Saunders is probably best known outside literary circles for a commencement speech he gave in 2013 with the key message “Try to be kinder”, which went viral on the internet.