Comment Section for Jenny Erpenbeck’s ‘Kairos’ Wins the International Booker Prize - The New York Times

The webpage announces that Jenny Erpenbeck's novel "Kairos" has won the International Booker Prize. The novel, the first originally written in German to win the award, is about a passionate love affair in the final years of East Germany. Erpenbeck shares the £50,000 prize money with Michael Hofmann, who translated the book into English. The story is said to mirror the history of East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall, starting with optimism and trust, then descending into a destructive vortex. The judging panel took only half an hour to decide on awarding "Kairos" the prize, beating five other shortlisted titles. "Kairos" is also being considered a potential contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. The International Booker Prize, established in 2005, recognises the best novel translated into English each year, separate from the original Booker Prize which recognizes fiction written in English.