International accolade for A Horse Walks Into A Bar

A novel based on a single fictional stand-up set has won this year's Man Booker International Prize.

David Grossman's A Horse Walks Into A  Bar describes a stand-up comic having a meltdown on stage over the course of a two-hour show.

The Israeli author and Jessica Cohen, who translated it from its original  Hebrew, both receive £25,000.

Cohen, who was born in Colchester, England, but raised in Jerusalem, previously translated Grossman’s critically acclaimed To the End of the Land as well as work by other major Israeli writers.

A Horse Walks Into a Bar unfolds over the course of the final show by stand-up Dovaleh Gee. 

Nick Barley, chair of the judging panel and director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival said: ’David Grossman has attempted an ambitious high-wire act of a novel, and he’s pulled it off spectacularly.  

‘A Horse Walks into a Bar shines a spotlight on the effects of grief, without any hint of sentimentality. The central character is challenging and flawed, but completely compelling. We were bowled over by Grossman’s willingness to take emotional as well as stylistic risks: every sentence counts, every word matters in this supreme example of the writer’s craft.’

This is only the second year that the Man Booker International Prize has been awarded to a single book, with the £50,000 prize divided equally between the author and the translator, following ls year’s winner The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith

Read our review of A Horse Walks Into A Barhere, or click here to buy it.

Published: 14 Jun 2017