Jenny Erpenbeck Wins 2024 International Booker Prize for "Kairos"

Jenny Erpenbeck and Michael Hofmann have jointly won the 2024 International Booker Prize for Erpenbeck’s novel “Kairos,” translated from German by Hofmann. This victory marks Erpenbeck as the first German author to receive the award, while Hofmann is the first male translator to achieve this honor. The £50,000 prize will be evenly split between them.

“Kairos,” by Jenny Erpenbeck and translated by Michael Hofmann, is set against the backdrop of East Germany’s collapse. Described by judging chair Eleanor Wachtel as a “richly textured evocation of a tormented love affair,” the novel intertwines personal and national upheavals. Wachtel praised Hofmann’s translation for capturing the unique eloquence and idiosyncrasies of Erpenbeck’s writing, particularly noting the effective use of run-on sentences and expansive emotional vocabulary.

The decision to award “Kairos” was reached with notable consensus among the judges, requiring just half an hour of discussion. Wachtel expressed surprise at the unanimity, noting that “Kairos” was the clear favorite when it mattered most.

This is Erpenbeck’s fourth novel. Her second novel, “The End of Days,” won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2015, the precursor to the International Booker Prize. Her third novel, “Go, Went, Gone,” was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2018.

Michael Hofmann has also previously won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, in 1995, for translating his father Gert Hofmann’s novel “The Film Explainer.” He served as a judge for the International Booker Prize in 2018, the same year Erpenbeck was longlisted.

Natasha Walter, in her Guardian review, described “Kairos” as “one of the bleakest and most beautiful novels” she has read, highlighting the dark nature of the central relationship and praising Hofmann’s translation for its claustrophobic intensity created by the present-tense narration.

Other shortlisted titles for the 2024 prize included “Not a River” by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott; “The Details” by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson; “Mater 2-10” by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae; “What I’d Rather Not Think About” by Jente Posthuma, translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey; and “Crooked Plow” by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz.

The judging panel comprised Eleanor Wachtel, poet Natalie Diaz, novelist Romesh Gunesekera, visual artist William Kentridge, and writer/editor/translator Aaron Robertson.

Past winners of the prize include Han Kang and translator Deborah Smith, Olga Tokarczuk and translator Jennifer Croft, and Lucas Rijneveld and translator Michele Hutchison. The 2023 prize was awarded to Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel for “Time Shelter.”