David Grossman the Israeli writer and his ttranslatorJessica Cohen won the Man Booker International prize for his comedy novel A Horse Walks Into The Bar. Grossman become the first Israeli writer who won the prestigious award. Grossman and Cohen shared the award money of £50, 000.
A Horse Walks Into The War is a comic novel which depict the life of a stand up comedian who perform at a small Israeli town. The crowd headed into the comedy club for a relaxed evening but they have to confront with an erratic, charming and repellent comedian. He exposes a wound he has been living with. The audience can’t leave or cannot drive him out of the stage. The novel tells the betrayal between lovers, treachery of friends, and guilt demanding redress.
Nick Barley the chair of the judging panel said that Grossman had “attempting an ambitious high wire act of a novel and pulled it off spectacularly…… The character is challenging and flawed, but completely compelling. We were bowled over by Grossman’s willingness to take emotional as well as stylistic risks: every sentence counts, every word matters in this supreme example of the writer’s craft. “
David Grossman was born on 25th January 1954 in Israel. He started his literary career in late 1970’s. His books have been translated to more than 30 languages. Grossman is the first Israeli writer who won the prestigious Man Booker International prize. He studied Philosophy and Theatre at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Grossman is a left wing activist who wishes for the end of conflict between Israel and Palestine. He severely opposes spread of Israel settlement in Palestine region. He addressed the Israel Palestine conflict through his book The End of the Land.
Jessica Cohen who translated the book was born in England and brought up in Israel. She is also the translator of the Judas of Amoz Oz who was nominated for Man Booker International prize this year.
The shortlisted writers for Man Booker prize of 2017 are Amoz Oz for Judas, French writer Mathias Ernard for Compass, Roy Jacosen of Norway for his book The Unseen, Danish author Dorthe Nors for Mirror and Argentina’s Samantha Schweblin for her work named Fewer Dream. Each shortlisted author and translator automatically receives £1,000. This is only the second year that the prize has been awarded to a single book. Before 2016, the Man Booker International was awarded every second year to an author for their entire body of work.
The Israeli daily ‘Times of Israel’ reported that Jessica Cohen will donate half of her prize money to an Israeli human right organization B’Tselem which operates in Westbank.
Last year the Man Booker prize was awarded to the Korean writer Hang Kan for the book The Vegetarian. David Grossman was awarded with various International awards including St. Louis literary award, JQ wingate prize, Emet prize, Bernstein prize etc.
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