WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - American author George Saunders has won The Man Booker Prize for his fiction 'Lincoln in the Bardo,' that tells the story of President Abraham Lincoln's grief after the death of his young son, and his visits to his tomb.
Saunders became only the second American writer to win The Man Booker Prize in its 49-year history. This is the second consecutive year that an American is winning the award. Last year Paul Beatty became the first for his novel 'The Sellout'.
'Lincoln in the Bardo' is the first full-length novel from George Saunders.
The book focuses on a single night in the life of Abraham Lincoln; in 1862 when the body of his 11-year-old son was laid to rest in a Washington cemetery. Saunders activates this graveyard with the spirits of its dead. The Independent described the novel as 'completely beguiling,' praising Saunders for concocting a narrative like no other: a magical, mystery tour of the bardo - the transitional state between one's death and one's next birth, according to Buddhism.
Saunders said that he didn't really want to write about Lincoln, 'but was so captivated by this story I'd heard years ago about him entering his son's crypt. I thought of the book as a way of trying to instill the same reaction I'd had all those years ago.'
The judges considered 144 submissions for this year's prize, and shortlisted Saunders alongside two British, one British-Pakistani and two American writers.
The 58-year-old New York resident, born in Texas, has previously won the Folio Prize and Story Prize for his short story collection Tenth of December.
Saunders was once named in Time Magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
The leading literary award in the English speaking world carries a prize money of £50,000 ($65,788), which was presented to him by Luke Ellis at a dinner at London's Guildhall. The Duchess of Cornwall presented him with a trophy.
'Lincoln in the Bardo' is published by Bloomsbury.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX