Israel’s Grossman wins International Booker Prize

Israel’s Grossman wins International Booker Prize

LONDON

Israeli author David Grossman has won the Man Booker International Prize for his novel “A Horse Walks Into a Bar.”

The award was announced recently in London.

Grossman beat out five other finalists, including fellow Israeli author Amos Oz for the counterpart to Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize. Grossman’s novel is about a failing stand-up comic and his final performance.

The award has a prize of $64,000 that is split evenly between Grossman and translator Jessica Cohen.

The prize was previously a career honor, but changed last year to recognize a single book in a bid to increase the profile of international fiction in English-speaking countries.

Obama is writing foreword for book of Souza photographs

NEW YORK

Former President Barack Obama has officially blessed a book by his White House photographer.

Obama is contributing a foreword to Pete Souza’s “Obama: An Intimate Portrait,” Little, Brown and Co. told The Associated Press.

Souza’s book comes out in November and builds on his widely followed Instagram account that has contrasted the Trump administration with images from Obama’s years in office.

Souza has known Obama for more than a decade, dating back to when Obama was a U.S. senator from Illinois.

A previous book of Souza pictures, “The Rise of Barack Obama,” came out in 2008. Souza also was a White House photographer during Ronald Reagan’s administration.

Associated Press