Tayari Jones’ novel has been read and recommended by former US President Barack Obama as well. (Source: Amazon.in)Women’s Prize for Fiction for this year has been awarded to Tayari Jones for her novel An American Marriage. Jonas for her, that traces the marriage wrecked by racial politics, has won £30,000 and a limited edition bronze figurine – the Bessie.
“This is an exquisitely intimate portrait of a marriage shattered by racial injustice. It is a story of love, loss and loyalty, the resilience of the human spirit painted on a big political canvas – that shines a light on today’s America,” Kate Williams, professor and chair of the judges said.
Jones’ novel has been read and recommended by former US President Barack Obama as well. Speaking on this, she said, “I’m delighted that Obama read my book and I’m delighted that I had a president in my time that read books and recommended them, who cared about the past and history, who used it to guide us to the future. I have no real hope or desire that the current occupant of the White House will read my book.”
The novel won among others, that included Anna Burns’s Milkman (winner of Man Booker last year) and Pat Barker’s new novel, The Silence of the Girls. “All the shortlisted novels speak clearly about the lives of women in different ways, about oppression and identity and trying to be free in a regime that doesn’t want you to be,” Williams said.
“I am thrilled and honoured. I wasn’t expecting to win. The shortlist was so strong and I was honoured to be among them but I had no idea whether I would win. I didn’t write a speech!” the author said, as quoted by a report in The Guardian.
