A Horse Walks Into a Bar has been selected the winner of this year’s Man Booker International Prize. Israeli author David Grossman and English-language translator Jessica Cohen will share equally in the £50,000 prize.
Grossman’s winning novel is set around a standup comic’s rambling and confessional routine in an Israeli comedy club. Dovaleh Greenstein opens his performance with crude and painful jokes intended to offend his audience, and then slowly disintegrates as he reveals an event from his past that has haunted him for years.
Nick Barley, the chairman of the award’s judging panel, says: ‘David Grossman has attempted an ambitious high-wire act of a novel, and he’s pulled it off spectacularly. A Horse Walks Into a Bar shines a spotlight on the effects of grief, without any hint of sentimentality. The central 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.’
Born and still based in Jerusalem, Grossman is the author of fiction, nonfiction and children’s books, and has been translated into 36 languages. He has long been recognised as one of the world’s great novelists and is the recipient of numerous literary awards.
Born in England and raised in Jerusalem, Cohen is a freelance translator based in Denver. She had previously worked with Grossman as a translator on his 2008 novel, To the End of the Land.
The Man Booker International Prize is awarded every year for a single book, which is translated into English and published in the UK. Prior to 2016, it was awarded biennially to a writer for an entire body of work. Read more about the Prize here.
