Libyan author Hisham Matar wins The Geschwister-Scholl-Preis for “The Return”

BY Libyan Express Oct 08, 2017 - 21:00 Updated: May 22, 2019 - 01:38

Hisham Matar is a Libyan writer who was born in 1970; his debut novel “In the Country of Men” was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. (Photo: Internet)

The Libyan author Hisham Matar has won a new international literary award for his book “The Return.”

On Thursday, the New York-born writer was awarded The Geschwister-Scholl-Preis for his “The Return” book, which recounts the story of his search for his father’s disappearance details when he returned to Libya after he was 33 for the first time in his life.

The Geschwister-Scholl-Preis is a literary prize which was initiated in 1980 by the State Association of Bavaria (Landesverband Bayern e. V.) in the Stock Market Society of the German Book Trade (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels) and the city of Munich.

Hisham Matar has won last April the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for his book The Return in the category of Biography Books.

Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of American (Hungarian-born) Joseph Pulitzer who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher, and is administered by Columbia University in New York City.

The Return won “Prix du Livre Etranger” (Foreign Book Prize) for 2017 in France for his book in January this year.

It also won the US PEN Literary Award ($75.000) at the beginning of April this year.

The book also won the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize, awarded at the Biographers’ Club prize dinner on November 15th, 2016, at the Savile Club in London.

Hisham Matar is a Libyan writer who was born in 1970; his debut novel “In the Country of Men” was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize.

Moreover, his essays have appeared in the Asharq al-Awsat, The Independent, The Guardian, The Times and The New York Times.

His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, was published on 3 March 2011. He currently lives and writes in London.

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