Hoda Barakat
Hoda Barakat is an award-winning Lebanese novelist.
Born in 1952, Barakat lived most of her early life in Beirut before moving to Paris, where she now resides. She has published novels, plays, a book of short stories, and a book of memoirs. Her works are originally written in Arabic and have been translated into English, Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Romanian, Dutch, and Greek. Barakat often explores themes of trauma and war; three of her early novels are narrated by male characters living in the margins of society during the Lebanese civil war.
She was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2015.
Background
Between 2005 - 2015, the Man Booker International Prize recognised one writer for their achievement in fiction.
Worth £60,000, the prize was awarded every two years to a living author who had published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language.
The winner was chosen solely at the discretion of the judging panel and there were no submissions from publishers.
The Man Booker International Prize was different from the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction in that it highlighted one writer’s overall contribution to fiction on the world stage. In focusing on overall literary excellence, the judges considered a writer’s body of work rather than a single novel.