2017 Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker International Prize 2017

Author David Grossman and translator Jessica Cohen

David Grossman and his translator Jessica Cohen took the prize with a novel about a stand-up comic unravelling on stage – savage humour and excoriating pain proving to be mirror images.

The much-lauded Israeli novelist Grossman is a sometimes controversial figure in his homeland for his peace activism and criticism of his country’s attitude towards the Palestinians. Some of the opposing forces in Israeli society are captured in the person of Dovaleh Greenstein, his fictional stand-up comedian, whose two-hour set gives the novel its narrative arc. Jessica Cohen, Grossman’s regular translator, caused a stir when she announced she would donate half her prize winnings to a human rights group documenting Israeli actions on the West Bank.

By
David Grossman
Translated by
Jessica Cohen
Published by
Jonathan Cape, Vintage
In David Grossman’s heartbreaking, visceral novel, a stand-up comedian delivers a shockingly cruel routine about guilt and betrayal. Translated by Jessica Cohen.

The shortlist

The Unseen

Translated by Don Bartlett Don Shaw

Compass

Translated by Charlotte Mandell

Fever Dream

Translated by Megan McDowell

Judas

Translated by Nicholas de Lange

Mirror, Shoulder, Signal

Translated by Misha Hoekstra

The longlist

The 2017 judges