Ben Lerner’s ‘Transcription’ Wins Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
American author Ben Lerner has won the Orwell Prize for political fiction with his novel ‘Transcription’, which examines technology and memory. Karen Bartlett’s ‘The Escape from Kabul’ took the nonfiction award.
The Orwell Prize for political fiction this year has been awarded to American writer Ben Lerner for his novel “Transcription”. The awards, which come with £5,000, aim to highlight books that best meet George Orwell’s ambition “to make political writing into an art”.
The novel’s first section follows a narrator traveling to Providence, Rhode Island, to conduct a final interview with an eccentric German intellectual named Thomas. However, after accidentally dropping his phone in the sink, the narrator proceeds with the interview without disclosing that the conversation is not being recorded.
Chair of the judging panel, Fiammetta Rocco, who led the International Booker Prize for 20 years, praised the book as “a forensic study of our insatiable appetite for new technology” that explores “the unreliable stories we tell ourselves about hunger, love and connection.” She added that the novel deals with dying with dignity and growing up in a new world, calling it “funny, brainy and timely.”
In the nonfiction category, Karen Bartlett won for “The Escape from Kabul”, which focuses on Afghan women lawyers who faced threats after the fall of Kabul in 2021. Former policy adviser Rohan Silva described the work as “taut and crisp”, noting that it sheds light on the plight of Afghanistan’s female judges with empathy and compassion.
The shortlist for fiction included eight other titles, such as “A Private Man” by Stephanie Sy-Quia and “John of John” by Douglas Stuart. Nonfiction contenders included “Israel: What Went Wrong?” by Omer Bartov and “Three Years On Fire” by Andrey Kurkov.
Previous winners of the fiction prize include Hisham Matar, Ali Smith, and Claire Keegan, while nonfiction laureates include Patrick Radden Keefe and Victoria Amelina.
