The German novel Kairos, by Jenny Erpenbeck, has won the International Booker Prize, one of the most preeminent awards for fiction translated into English.
The book, set to the backdrop of the political shifts of 1980s Germany, is about an affair between a married man in his 50s and a 19-year-old women that eventually becomes violent and cruel. In a review on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” critic John Powers said that Erpenbeck recognizes that love stories must tackle more than just love. The characters’ “love affair becomes something of a metaphor for East Germany, which began in hopes for a radiant future and ended up in pettiness, accusation, punishment and failure.”
The novel was original written in German and translated by Michael Hofmann. He and Erpenbeck will split a prize of 50,000 British pounds (around $63,000).
