George Saunders Wins 2017 Man Booker Prize
George Saunders won the 2017 Man Booker Prize, becoming the second American in a row to win the coveted British literary award.
His winning novel, “Lincoln in the Bardo,” describes the night President Lincoln visited his son’s body in a Washington graveyard.
The prize, worth approximately $66,000, virtually guarantees increased sales around the world, though “Lincoln in the Bardo” was already a bestseller in the United States.
Baroness Lola Young, chair of the Man Booker Prize, made the announcement at a ceremony Tuesday evening in London. “The form and style of this utterly original novel reveals a witty, intelligent, and deeply moving narrative,” she said.
Distinct from the poignant satires Saunders has published in the New Yorker and elsewhere, “Lincoln in the Bardo” is an extended national ghost story, a strangely funny and piteous tale about the death of Lincoln’s 11-year-old son, Willie, in 1862.
