LONDON — German author Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann won the Booker International Prize for fiction on Tuesday for “Kairos,” the story of a tangled love affair during the final years of East Germany’s existence.
The novel beat five other finalists, chosen from 149 novels submitted, for the award, which recognizes fiction from around the world that has been translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. The £50,000 ($64,000) prize is split between the author and the translator.
Canadian broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel, who chaired the five-member judging panel, said Erpenbeck’s novel about the relationship between a student and an older writer is “a richly textured evocation of a tormented love story, the intertwining of personal transformations and national”.
It is set in the last days of the German Democratic Republic, before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Erpenbeck, 57, was born and raised in East Berlin, which was part of East Germany until the country disappeared with German reunification in 1990.
“Like the GDR, (the book) starts with optimism and confidence, but then falls apart terribly,” Wachtel said.
He said Hofmann’s translation captures the “eloquence and eccentricities” of Erpenbeck’s prose.
The Booker International Prize is awarded every year. It is awarded alongside the Booker Prize for Fiction in English, which will be awarded in the autumn.
Last year’s winner was another novel about communism and its legacy in Europe, “Refuge in Time,” by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov and translated by Angela Rodel.
The prize was set up to raise the profile of fiction in other languages (which represents only a small proportion of books published in Britain) and to salute the underrated work of literary translators.
Hoffman is the first male translator to win the Booker International Prize since its launch in its current form in 2016.
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