Canadian-Hungarian-British writer David Szalay wins Booker Prize for fiction for ‘Flesh’
London: Canadian-Hungarian-British writer David Szalay won the Booker Prize in the fiction category on Monday for his work ‘Flesh’, beating five other finalists, including favourites Andrew Miller and Kiran Desai.
Szalay, aged 51 years, who was chosen by a panel of judges that included Irish writer Roddy Doyle as well as ‘Sex and the City’ star Sarah Jessica Parker, will be honoured with a £50,000 ($66,000) payday, while the award is considered a major boost to a writer’s sales and profile too.
Szalay’s book narrates the life of a taciturn István, from a teenage relationship with an older woman over a period of time as a struggling immigrant in Britain to a denizen of London high society. The author has said he wanted to write about a Hungarian immigrant, and “about life as a physical experience, about what it’s like to be a living body in the world.”
Speaking about ‘Flesh’, Doyle has said that István belonged to the working class, which is overlooked in fiction. After reading the novel, he has begun looking more closely when he walks past bouncers standing in the doorways of Dublin pubs, Doyle added.
Many critics also praised the book, but is known to have frustrated others as it refused to fill in the gaps in the protagonist’s story, which includes incarceration and wartime service in Iraq occur off the page. The protagonist István is also adamantly unexpressive and his most common remark is merely ‘Okay’, the critics have said.
Szalay, who was born in Canada, raised in the U.K. and lives in Vienna, was previously a Booker finalist in 2016 for “All That Man Is,” a series of stories about nine wildly different men.
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4 workers die after being buried under coal slurry in Jharkhand's Dhanbad
Dhanbad (Jharkhand) (PTI): At least four workers died after being buried under coal slurry in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district on Saturday, a police official said.
The incident took place at Moonidih coal washery in the command area of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL).
"Bodies of all four workers were dug out of debris during a rescue operation," Putki police station in-charge Waqar Hussain told PTI.
The incident took place when coal slurry was being loaded into trucks by workers, during which a large chunk of slurry fell and trapped several workers underneath, officials said.
The deceased have been identified as Manik Bauri, Dinesh Bauri, Deepak Bauri, and Hemlal Gope.
Meanwhile, the family members of the deceased and local villagers placed the bodies in front of the washery gate and began a protest.
They demanded compensation, jobs for dependents and action against those responsible for the incident.
Police and administration officials are trying to pacify the protesters, an official said.
