News

30.07.2020

Writer of Polish origin nominated for the Booker Prize

Gabriel Krauze, a British author of Polish origin, has made it onto the list of nominations for this year's Booker Prize, the most important British literary award. The longlist was announced Monday night.

Krauze, who grew up in a Polish family in London, was nominated for his debut novel 'Who They Was'. It tells the story of his adolescence when he was drawn into the world of gangs and crime from an early age, from which, according to the book publisher, he managed to get out.

Apart from Krauze, the list of 13 nominees included British writers Hilary Mantel, Douglas Stuart, and Sophie Ward; American writers Diane Cook, Avni Doshi, Kiley Reid, Brandon Taylor, Anne Tyler, and C. Pam Zhang; an Irishman Colum McCann; Zimbabwean native Tsitsi Dangarembga; and Ethiopian-American writer Maaza Mengiste.

The best known of this group is Mantel, who was nominated for "The Mirror & The Light" - the third part of the trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, advisor and minister of King Henry VIII. For both previous parts - published in 2009 and 2012 - Mantel received the Booker Award.

The six finalists will be announced on 15 September, and the name of this year's winner will be announced in November. The prize for the winner is £50,000.

The Booker Prize has been awarded since 1969, initially to writers from Commonwealth countries, Ireland, and Zimbabwe. From 2014 onwards, any novel written in English and published in the UK and Ireland can be awarded. In addition, since 2005 the International Booker Prize has been awarded to novels written in other languages and translated into English. In 2018, Olga Tokarczuk won the International Booker Prize.

Source: Polish Press Agency, Bartłomiej Niedziński