US author George Saunders on Tuesday became only the second US writer to win Britain’s renowned Man Booker Prize for Fiction, which was awarded for his first full-length novel, Lincoln in the Bardo.
Judges for the world’s most prestigious English-language literary award praised as “utterly original” the book that chronicles the death of former US president Abraham Lincoln’s 11-year-old son Willie using the accounts of hundreds of narrators.
“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 in London.
Saunders, 58, described the award as a “great honor, which I hope to live up to with the rest of my work, for the rest of my life.”
In a brief, politically tinged acceptance speech, he made several thinly veiled references to the controversial policies of US President Donald Trump.
“We live in a strange time,” he told the audience. “In the US, now we’re hearing a lot about the need to protect culture. Well, this tonight is culture.”
He later told reporters he was in disbelief and numb at the award.
“For an artist, I think validation is really helpful,” Saunders aid. “My opinion of myself improves a little bit.”
The winner receives ￡52,500 (US$69,227), although the bigger prize is seen as a spike in sales, which invariably follows the announcement of the winner.
This year’s shortlist stoked controversy over its big-name omissions and eclectic lineup, with one British columnist calling it “baffling” and a leading US critic decrying its “Americanization.”
It pitted three nominees from the US against two British writers and a British-Pakistani author.
The award, launched in 1969, was only open to novelists from Commonwealth states until it began permitting those from other English-speaking countries in 2014.
Last year, Paul Beatty became the first American to win for his novel The Sellout.
Saunders was the British bookmakers’ favorite ahead of the announcement on Tuesday.
He wrote Lincoln in the Bardo over a four-year period, after first conceptualizing it 20 years ago, the author told a news conference following the ceremony.
Saunders said he was unsure how exactly to tell the story at the outset, but relished the artistic freedom.
“I think the true mastery [of storytelling] is to be willing to wade into something and not be sure how it’s going to turn out,” he added.
Saunders has penned award-winning short story collections, essays, illustrated fables and a best-selling children’s book, as well as many pieces of journalism.
In 2006, he was awarded both a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship, while in 2009 he received an academy award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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