Canadian-Hungarian-British writer David Salai She won the Booker Prize for Fiction on Monday for a novel meat, The story of an ordinary man’s life over several decades, where what’s not on the page is as important as what is.
Zalay, 51, He beat five other finalists, Including favorites Andrew Miller and Kiran Desai, to take home the coveted £50,000 literary prize, which usually gives a huge boost to the winner’s sales and profile.
He was It was selected from among 153 novels It was presented by a jury that included Irish writer Roddy Doyle and the film’s star Sex in New York Sarah Jessica Parker.
Doyle stated meat, The book “On Living and the Strangeness of Living” The unanimous choice of judges emerged after a five-hour meeting.
Szalay’s book tells the story of a life of silence István goes from a teenage relationship with an older woman, during his time as a struggling immigrant in Britain, to becoming a London socialite. The author said he wanted to write about a Hungarian immigrant and “about life as a bodily experience, about what it means to be a living body in the world.”
Doyle, who chaired the judging panel, commented that Istvan belongs to a group overlooked in fiction: the working-class man. He said that since reading it, he now takes a closer look when he passes bouncers at the doors of Dublin pubs.
“I’m taking a second look at him, because I feel like I can get to know him a little better,” said Doyle, whose funny and moving stories about working-class life in Dublin won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
“He presents us with a certain type of man who… “It invites us to look beyond the face.”
Salai, who was born in Canada, raised in the United Kingdom and lives in Vienna, was previously a finalist for the Booker Prize in 2016. “This man is, A series of stories about nine very different men.
meat It was praised by many critics, however He frustrated others by refusing to fill in the gaps in Istvan’s story: Much of life, including imprisonment and wartime service in Iraq, takes place off the page, its central character stubbornly deadpan, the most common comment being “It’s okay.”
“We liked the sobriety of the writing,” Doyle said. “We loved how so much was revealed without us even realizing it was being revealed… Watching this man grow and get older and learn so much about him, despite himself, in some ways.
“If the gaps were filled, the book would be shorter.” Comment.
Szalai had been considered an odd candidate for this year’s award, but his odds on taking home the award rose in the bookmakers in the days leading up to Monday’s ceremony.
British writer Miller was the favorite according to the betting markets for the domestic drama of the early 1960s Earth in winter And Indian author Desai of the global epic Sonia and Sunny unit, His first novel since then inheritance of loss, Which won the Booker Prize in 2006.
Other finalists were Twisted Family Saga flashlight Written by Susan Choi; Performance history and identity Testing Written by Katie Kitamura; And the road trip of a midlife crisis the rest of our lives By Ben Markovits.
Established in 1969, the Booker Prize has gained a reputation for transforming the careers of writers. Among its winners were Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Arundhati Roy, Margaret Atwood and Samantha Harvey. Which received the 2024 Prize for Space Station History tropical.
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