American writer Ben Lerner has won this year’s Orwell prize for political fiction for Transcription, a novel exploring technology and memory.
In nonfiction, the prize went to Karen Bartlett for The Escape from Kabul, which looks at Afghan women lawyers who came under threat after the fall of Kabul in 2021.
The prizes, which aim to highlight books that best meet Orwell’s own ambition “to make political writing into an art”, come with £5,000.
The first section of Lerner’s novel sees the narrator travelling to Providence, Rhode Island, to conduct a final interview with an eccentric German intellectual, Thomas. However, in his hotel room, the narrator drops his phone in the sink, meaning he’s left with no functioning recording device. He proceeds with the interview without telling Thomas that the conversation is going unrecorded.
“A forensic study of our insatiable appetite for new technology, [Transcription] explores the unreliable stories we tell ourselves about hunger, love and connection,” said judging chair Fiammetta Rocco, who helmed the International Booker prize for 20 years. “It is about dying with dignity and growing up in a new world. It’s funny, brainy and timely. Lerner deserves to be a household name.”
Along with Transcription, the titles shortlisted for this year’s fiction prize were A Private Man by Stephanie Sy-Quia, Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn, Flashlight by Susan Choi, John of John by Douglas Stuart, The Comfort of Distant Stars by IO Echeruo, This Is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin, and Uprising by Tahmima Anam.
Joining Rocco on the fiction judging panel were the academics Scarlett Baron and Olivette Otele, as well as Telegraph literary editor Cal Revely-Calder.
Bartlett’s nonfiction prize winner, The Escape from Kabul, is “taut and crisp, and shines a light on a story that deserves attention”, said Rohan Silva, former policy adviser and founder of Libreria bookshop in Spitalfields, London. “The plight of Afghanistan’s immensely brave female judges in the face of Islamic fundamentalism is a gripping tale – and Karen Bartlett tells it with deep reserves of empathy and compassion. The book is truly Orwellian in the most positive sense.”
Alongside Bartlett’s book, shortlisted nonfiction titles were For the Sun After Long Nights by Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy, Israel: What Went Wrong? by Omer Bartov, Shattered Lands by Sam Dalrymple, Stalin’s Apostles by Antonia Senior, The Elements of Power by Nicolas Niarchos, The Wall Dancers by Yi-Ling Liu, and Three Years On Fire by Andrey Kurkov.
Joining Silva on the nonfiction panel was editor Sam Bowman, academic Lawrence Freedman, writer Jessie Lau and Times technology business editor Katie Prescott.
Previous winners of the fiction prize include Hisham Matar, Ali Smith, Donal Ryan and Claire Keegan, while previous nonfiction winners include Patrick Radden Keefe, Victoria Amelina and Peter Apps.
• Transcription by Ben Lerner is published by Granta (£14.99) and The Escape from Kabul by Karen Bartlett by Duckworth (£12.99). To support the Guardian, order your copies with a 20% discount at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
