Awarded the Buker Prize

On October 17, the 2017 Buker Prize laureate was announced in London. He was the American writer George Sonders, the author of the novel Lincoln in Bardo.

According to the website of the Buker Prize, the 58-year-old native of Texas, living in New York, became the second representative of the United States, who received the award for 49 years of its history.

The jury preferred the book of Senders to five other works included in the short list of Boker-2017 .

“Lincoln in Bardo” tells about one evening from the life of President Abraham Lincoln, who had just buried his 11-year-old son and deeply experiencing his death. The most part of the novel occurs in the bardo - the intermediate state of the soul between death and degeneration.

The chairman of the jury of the Buker Prize Lola Young called the work of the American writer "an extremely original novel", especially highlighting the "witty, intelligent and deeply exciting narrative." “The book“ Lincoln in Bardo ”is rooted in history and at the same time plays with it, exploring the meaning and experience of empathy,” she said.

The Buker Prize was founded in 1969 and was awarded to writers from the countries of the Commonwealth, Ireland, South Africa and Zimbabwe until 2013. According to the current rules, it is awarded to writers from any country in the world for a novel in English, published in the UK. The winner receives a cash prize of 50 thousand pounds.

In 2016, the novel "Selling" ( The Sell ) Paul Beatty (USA) won the award.