Jenny Erpenbeck’s ‘Kairos’ wins the International Booker Prize 2024

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Context

German author Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann won the International Booker Prize for fiction for “Kairos,” .

About Kairos: It is the story of a tangled love affair during the final years of East Germany’s existence.
Perspective on Life in a Defunct Communist Country: Ms. Erpenbeck expressed that the book would help readers understand that life in the now-defunct Communist country was more nuanced than the one portrayed in ‘The Lives of Others’.

International Booker Prize 2024

International Booker Prize: It is awarded every year. It is run alongside the Booker Prize for English-language fiction.

The prize recognizes fiction from around the world that has been translated into English and published in the U.K. or Ireland.
The 50,000 pounds ($64,000) in prize money is divided between author and translator.

Indian International Booker Prize Laureate of past:

- ‘The Lives of Others’ is the Academy Award-winning 2006 film about extensive state surveillance in the 1980s.
Winner 2023: A novel about communism and its legacy in Europe, ‘Time Shelter’ by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov and translated by Angela Rodel.

About: Jenny Erpenbeck, 57, was born and raised in East Berlin, which was part of East Germany until the country disappeared with German reunification in 1990.
Ms. Erpenbeck is the first German winner of the International Booker Prize.
- Mr. Hofmann is the first male translator to win since the prize launched in its current form in 2016.

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