Kairos is the winner of the International Booker Prize 2024. An intimate and devastating story of the path of two lovers through the ruins of a relationship, set against the backdrop of a seismic period in European history
- Longlisted
- The Man Booker International Prize 2018
- Published by Portobello Books
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In a powerful response to a growing crisis, Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel explores questions about race, immigration, refugees and European identity
Newly retired Richard spends his days cooking, pottering in his garden and walking around his home city of Berlin. Following an excursion to Alexanderplatz, he befriends a group of African men whose camp is being pulled down by the authorities. These asylum seekers have found their way to Berlin from all over Africa by way of Libya and then Italy. They have no ‘right’ to be in Berlin, and they must follow the rules if they have any hope in being allowed to remain.
Jenny Erpenbeck
Winner of the International Booker Prize 2024 for Kairos. Jenny Erpenbeck was born in East Berlin in 1967, and is an opera director, playwright and award-winning novelist
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