'A translation is neither one nor two people's work, but sort of a collaboration between an author, a translator and the book, which I think is always very exciting,' she said.ĭiop's novel tells the story of two Senegalese soldiers fighting for France in the trenches of World War I. 'I'm so thrilled about how this will even further increase the number of people who encounter this book, which I feel so fortunate to have been able to translate.' 'It's taken me by surprise,' she told AFP. Watch the full awards ceremony here: #TranslatedFiction #FinestFiction /4mDwOZeuaT The Booker Prizes June 3, 2021 The book's translator Anna Moschovakis won half the £50,000 ($70,850) prize, which recognises the major role of translators.Ĭongratulations to writer David Diop and translator Anna Moschovakis on winning the #2021InternationalBooker for the extraordinary At Night All Blood is Black. This really shows that literature has no borders.' 'It's very interesting and gratifying for me.

'I'm extremely happy to have won this prize,' Diop told AFP in an interview in his native French. 'We judges agreed that its incantatory prose and dark, brilliant vision had jangled our emotions and blown our minds,' she said, adding 'it had cast a spell on us'. Lucy Hughes-Hallett, chair of the judges, said 'this story of warfare and love and madness has a terrifying power'. The Paris-born writer became the first French winner of the prize, awarded for a book translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland, in a ceremony broadcast online from Coventry Cathedral in central England. LONDON - French novelist David Diop on Wednesday won the prestigious International Booker Prize for books translated into English with his World War I-set novel, At Night All Blood is Black.

David diop at night