David Diop Becomes First French Writer To Win International Booker Prize

David Diop has become the first French Writer to win the International Booker Prize

Gatekeeper News reports that David Diop’s second novel, ‘At Night All Blood is Black’ has earned him an honour as the first French writer to win the International Booker Prize.

The chair of the judges, Lucy Hughes-Hallett, during a virtual celebration at Coventry Cathedral announced the book as the winner.

Hughes-Hallett said, “This story of warfare and love and madness has a terrifying power,” said Hughes-Hallet. “The protagonist is accused of sorcery, and there is something uncanny about the way the narrative works on the reader.

“We judges agreed that its incantatory prose and dark, brilliant vision had jangled our emotions and blown our minds. That it had cast a spell on us.”

The judges after declaring him the winner said his £50,000 prize would be split between Diop and the book’s translator – US author and poet Anna Moschovakis.

Diop said the book was inspired by his Senegalese great-grandfather’s silence about his experiences in World War One.

The book which was shortlisted with five others including Éric Vuillard’s ‘The War of the Poor’, fended them off the competition.

In the winning book, Diop portrays a young man’s descent into madness and tells the story of the Senegalese who fought for France during the conflict.

The French-Senegalese writer and literature professor, in reaction to the achievement, spoke about his great-grandfather: “He never said anything to his wife, or my mother, about his experience. That is why I was always very interested by all the tales and accounts which gave one access to a form of intimacy with that particular war.”

The International Booker Prize is an annual award for a single book that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland.