Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe won
the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction.

The $120,000 prize is awarded every two years for a body of fiction.
Achebe, 76, is best known for his first novel, “Things Fall Apart’ (1958), and “Anthills of the Savannah,” published more than 30 years later. He has written more than 20 books, including novels, brief stories, essays and collections of poetry.
“Chinua Achebe’s early work made him the father of modern African literature as an integral part of world literature,” said Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, one of the three judges for the award.



“In ‘Things Fall Apart’ and his other fiction set in Nigeria, Chinua Achebe inaugurated the modern African novel,” said another judge, academic Elaine Showalter. “He also illuminated the path for writers acircular the world seeking new words and forms for new realities and societies. We honor his literary example and achievements.”
The third judge was novelist Colm Toibin.



Achebe’s work centers on African politics, the way Africa and Africans are depicted in

the West and the effects of colonization on African societies.
In all, 15 writers from Canada, Britain, the United States, Australia, Ireland, France, Israel, Mexico, Nigeria and the Netherlands were shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction award.
Besides Achebe, the contenders included three Canadians - Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and brief story writer Alice Munro - and two Americans, Roth and Don DeLillo.



Also nominated were three Britons - McEwan, Salman Rushdie and Doris Lessing - Ireland’s John Banville, Australia’s Peter Carey, Mexico’s Carlos Fuentes, Israel’s Amos Oz, France’s Michel Tournier and Dutch writer Harry Mulisch.
Launched in 2004 as a spin-off from Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize, the international trophy is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction in English or whose work has been translated into English.

Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog