Ozu recognition for language skills

The famous Israeli writer Amos Oz is the winner of the German International Prize for Literature. Oz was awarded for the novel "Judas".

This award celebrates the linguistic skills of storytelling and translation and their role in conveying ideas and overcoming cultural boundaries, and is awarded for a superior work of prose and its German translation.

Oz's novel, which explores the theme of betrayal and delves into key issues of Israel's existence, including its founding in the wake of the Holocaust, the wars it has fought since then, and the ongoing, historic conflict with the Palestinians, tells the story of five characters, three living and two dead.

Oz, together with Miriam Presler, who translated the novel into German, will be awarded the prize on July 25.000 in Berlin. This tandem will receive a cash prize of 10.000 and XNUMX euros, respectively. The decision of the jury members did not go smoothly and without criticism. Literary critic Sigrid Loeffler accused them of choosing Oz in an effort to draw international attention to the award. Loeffler stated that the decision to award the prize to such a famous writer as Oz distorts its very purpose: to draw attention to parts of the world that have so far received too little attention from the literary public.

Jury members, however, stated that Oz masterfully conveys and portrays the main problems and conflicts in the Middle East in his novel, highlighting fine nuances in Pressler's intelligent translation. Behind the International Literary Prize, which is now in its seventh year, are the "Haus der Kulturen der Welt" (House of World Cultures) and the Elementarteilchen Foundation in Hamburg.

In March, Pressler won the Leipzig Book Fair prize for her translation of Oz's novel. The seven-member jury, which this year included Leila Chammaa, Michael Krüger, Marko Martin, Sabine Peschel, Jörg Plath, Iris Radisch and Sabine Scholli, included six works in the shortlist for 2015.

In addition to Croatian writer Daša Drndić's novel "Sonnenschein", the shortlist included NoViolet Bulawayo's novel "Wir brauchen neue Namen" (We Need New Names), Patrick Chamoiseau's novel "Die Spur des Anderen" (L'empreinte a Crusoé), the novel "Das lärmende Schweigen" (Le Passé devant soi) by Gilbert Gatore and the novel "Aquarium" by Krisztina Toth. So far, the award has been won by Daniel Alarcón, Marie NDiaye, Michail Shishkin, Mircea Cartarescu, Teja Cole and Dany Laferriere.