Date: 6 June 2011 (announcement of winner)
The 2011 Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize Shortlist
The Jewish story of exile and displacement is more current and resonant than ever before, as shown by this year’s winning titles for the Booker and Costa Biography Award. The shortlist for the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize 2011 maps the Jewish story across time and borders, from Baghdad to the Palais Ephrussi, and from the lush Galilee to a desolate post-war German village through the dark shadow of Christian anti-Semitism. This year, the shortlist includes Eli Amir (Iraqi) and David Grossman (Israeli).
The shortlist is as follows:
· To the End of the Land by David Grossman (Jonathan Cape)
· The Dove Flyer by Eli Amir (Halban)
· The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury)
· Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal (Chatto)
· Trials of the Diaspora by Anthony Julius (OUP)
· Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck (Portobello)
Chair of the Judging panel Lisa Appignanesi commented “It must be a reflection of the excellence of the books to hand that our short-list judging meeting proved so exhilarating I wanted the discussion to go on and on. But all good voyages have their terminus. The list we arrived at with great consensual enthusiasm is a truly remarkable one: four superb novels, each one extraordinary in its own way; a scintillating memoir, and an argumentative extravaganza that attacks its dark subject with zest.”
The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on June 6th. Previous winners include Amos Oz, David Grossman, Zadie Smith, Imre Kertesz, Oliver Sacks, WG Sebald.
THE DOVE FLYER by Eli Amir
When his Uncle Hizkel is arrested, Kabi and his family face an uncertain future, as do all Jews living in 1950s’ Baghdad. Each member of Kabi’s circle has a different dream: his mother wants to return to the Moslem quarter where she felt safer; his father wants to emigrate to Israel and grow rice there while Salim, his headmaster, wants Arabs and Jews to be equal, and Abu Edouard just wants to continue to care for his beloved doves.
Eli Amir was born in Baghdad in 1937 and left for Israel in 1950. A prize-winning author, he is also a social activist, once saying in Cairo “How can there be peace without us knowing each other?”
TO THE END OF THE LAND by David Grossman
Ora is about to celebrate her son Ofer’s release from Israeli army service when he voluntarily rejoins his unit for a major offensive. In a fit of magical thinking, she takes off to hike in the Galilee, leaving no forwarding information for the ‘notifiers’ who might darken her door. This is comforting logic: if she cannot be told of Ofer’s death, he must remain alive. Grossman’s rich imagining of a family in love and crisis is one of the great anti-war novels of our time.
David Grossman was born in Jerusalem on January 25, 1954 and studied philosophy and theatre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is one of the leading Israeli writers of his generation, and the author of numerous pieces of fiction, nonfiction and children’s literature. His work has been translated into 25 languages around the world.
For more information, or to contact the judges, please email Marion Cohen at wingate@jewishquarterly.org.
More information here.
The 2011 Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize Shortlist
The Jewish story of exile and displacement is more current and resonant than ever before, as shown by this year’s winning titles for the Booker and Costa Biography Award. The shortlist for the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize 2011 maps the Jewish story across time and borders, from Baghdad to the Palais Ephrussi, and from the lush Galilee to a desolate post-war German village through the dark shadow of Christian anti-Semitism. This year, the shortlist includes Eli Amir (Iraqi) and David Grossman (Israeli).
The shortlist is as follows:
· To the End of the Land by David Grossman (Jonathan Cape)
· The Dove Flyer by Eli Amir (Halban)
· The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury)
· Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal (Chatto)
· Trials of the Diaspora by Anthony Julius (OUP)
· Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck (Portobello)
Chair of the Judging panel Lisa Appignanesi commented “It must be a reflection of the excellence of the books to hand that our short-list judging meeting proved so exhilarating I wanted the discussion to go on and on. But all good voyages have their terminus. The list we arrived at with great consensual enthusiasm is a truly remarkable one: four superb novels, each one extraordinary in its own way; a scintillating memoir, and an argumentative extravaganza that attacks its dark subject with zest.”
The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on June 6th. Previous winners include Amos Oz, David Grossman, Zadie Smith, Imre Kertesz, Oliver Sacks, WG Sebald.
THE DOVE FLYER by Eli Amir
When his Uncle Hizkel is arrested, Kabi and his family face an uncertain future, as do all Jews living in 1950s’ Baghdad. Each member of Kabi’s circle has a different dream: his mother wants to return to the Moslem quarter where she felt safer; his father wants to emigrate to Israel and grow rice there while Salim, his headmaster, wants Arabs and Jews to be equal, and Abu Edouard just wants to continue to care for his beloved doves.
Eli Amir was born in Baghdad in 1937 and left for Israel in 1950. A prize-winning author, he is also a social activist, once saying in Cairo “How can there be peace without us knowing each other?”
TO THE END OF THE LAND by David Grossman
Ora is about to celebrate her son Ofer’s release from Israeli army service when he voluntarily rejoins his unit for a major offensive. In a fit of magical thinking, she takes off to hike in the Galilee, leaving no forwarding information for the ‘notifiers’ who might darken her door. This is comforting logic: if she cannot be told of Ofer’s death, he must remain alive. Grossman’s rich imagining of a family in love and crisis is one of the great anti-war novels of our time.
David Grossman was born in Jerusalem on January 25, 1954 and studied philosophy and theatre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is one of the leading Israeli writers of his generation, and the author of numerous pieces of fiction, nonfiction and children’s literature. His work has been translated into 25 languages around the world.
For more information, or to contact the judges, please email Marion Cohen at wingate@jewishquarterly.org.
More information here.
