Albanian novelist wins inaugural Man Booker International Prize 2005
Ismail Kadare named as winner for the first ever Man Booker International Prize
Kadaré, born in 1936 in the Albanian mountain town of Gjirokaster near the Greek border, is Albania’s best-known poet and novelist. He has lived in France since 1990, following his decision to seek asylum stating that: “Dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible… The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship.”
From 1986, under the Communist regime, Kadaré’s work was smuggled out of Albania by his French publisher, Éditions Fayard, and stored in safe keeping for later publication. Translations of his novels have since been published in more than forty countries.
The judging panel for the 2005 Man Booker International Prize is: Professor John Carey (Chair); writer, novelist and editor, Alberto Manguel; and writer and academic, Azar Nafisi.
Professor John Carey, Chair of the judges, comments: “Ismail Kadaré is a writer who maps a whole culture - its history, its passion, its folklore, its politics, its disasters. He is a universal writer in a tradition of storytelling that goes back to Homer.”
In response to winning the prize, Kadaré comments: “I feel deeply honoured by the award of the Man Booker International Fiction Prize.
“I am a writer from the Balkan Fringe, a part of Europe which has long been notorious exclusively for news of human wickedness - armed conflicts, civil wars, ethnic cleansing, and so on.
“My firm hope is that European and world opinion may henceforth realise that this region, to which my country, Albania, belongs, can also give rise to other kinds of news and be the home of other kinds of achievement, in the field of the arts, literature and civilisation.
“I would like to take the prize that I have been awarded as confirmation that my confidence and my hopes have not been misplaced.”
The Man Booker International Prize seeks to recognise a living author who has contributed significantly to world literature and to highlight the author’s continuing creativity and development on a global scale.
Harvey McGrath, Chairman of Man Group plc, comments:
“Ismail Kadaré’s novels shine a light on the mores of his native Albania. His writing reflects not only the complexities of a nation coming to terms with its freedom, but also his own personal experiences, and make him a worthy recipient of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize.”
Ismail Kadaré will receive the prize of £60,000 and a trophy at the Award Ceremony on 27 June 2005 in Edinburgh.
In accordance with the rules of the recently announced separate prize for translation, Kadaré will choose a translator or translators to receive an additional prize of £15,000.
Notes to Editors
The Judges
John Carey is the UK’s most eminent literary critic. He is also a broadcaster and the author of many books. He was Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford from 1976-2001 and chaired the Booker Prize in 1982 and in 2003. His book, What Good are the Arts?, is just published.
Azar Nafisi is a visiting fellow, professorial lecturer, and the director of The Dialogue Project: The Culture of Democracy in Muslim Societies at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC. Her book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, is an international bestseller.
Alberto Manguel is a writer, novelist, translator and editor. He has received numerous awards and honours from around the world, including the Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2004), Premio German Sanchez Ruiperez for best literary criticism (Spain, 2002) and the Prix Roger Caillois (France, 2004). He has also been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has written several novels and books on literary criticism, including A History of Reading.
In accordance with the rules of the recently announced separate prize for translation, Kadaré can choose a translator or translator of his work into English to receive a prize of £15,000.
The Man Booker International Prize is unique in the world of literature in that it can be won by an author of any nationality, providing that his or her work is available in the English language. Worth £60,000 to the winner, the prize will be awarded once every two years to a living author. An author can only win the award once. It is also different and distinct from the Man Booker Prize in that it is for a body of work.
The Judges’ List of contenders was announced at Georgetown University, Washington DC on 18 February 2005 and, in addition to Kadaré included the following authors:
- Margaret Atwood (Born and lives in Canada)
- Saul Bellow* (Born Canada, lived USA)
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Born Colombia, lives in various places)
- Gunter Grass (Born and lives in Germany)
- Ismail Kadaré (Born in Albania and lives in France)
- Milan Kundera (Born in Czech Republic and lives in France)
- Stanislaw Lem (Born and lives in Poland)
- Doris Lessing (Born Persia, lives in UK)
- Ian McEwan (Born and lives in UK)
- Naguib Mahfouz (Born and lives in Egypt)
- Tomas Eloy Martinez (Born in Argentina, lives in USA)
- Kenzaburo Oe (Born and lives in Japan)
- Cynthia Ozick (Born and lives in USA)
- Philip Roth (Born and lives in USA)
- Muriel Spark (Born in Scotland, lives in Italy)
- Antonio Tabucchi (Born and lives in Italy)
- John Updike (Born and lives in USA)
- A.B. Yehoshua (Born and lives in Israel)
*Please note that according to the rules of the prize Saul Bellow was no longer eligible to win following his death on 5 April 2005
The Administrator of the Man Booker International Prize is Ion Trewin, currently Deputy Administrator of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
Colman Getty PR handles PR and event management for the prize and provides administrative back-up. Photographs of Ismail Kadaré and of the judges are available from Colman Getty PR.
The Man Booker International Prize website includes detailed information about all aspects of the prize and runs regular news bulletins: www.manbookerinternational.com
The Booker Prize was originally established in 1969 by Booker plc, a food distribution and agribusiness company.
The trustees of the Booker Prize Foundation are former Chairman of Booker plc, Jonathan Taylor CBE (Chairman); playwright Ronald Harwood CBE; Baroness Kennedy QC; writer, Rabbi Dame Julia Neuberger; MEP Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne; and former Finance Director of Rentokil plc, Christopher Pearce.
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For up to date information please visit www.manbookerinternational.com or contact Mark Hutchinson or Truda Spruyt at Colman Getty PR on 020 7631 2666 at firstname@colmangettypr.co.uk
