Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Ondaatje prize goes to 'beautiful and disquieting' history of Baghdad

Royal Society of Literature’s £10,000 award won by Justin Marozzi’s book, which spans centuries of city’s turbulent history

The River Tigris River running through downtown Baghdad in 2013.
‘Repeated tragedy and recurring renaissance’ ... the River Tigris running through downtown Baghdad in 2013. Photograph: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
A history of Baghdad that ranges from its 15th-century sacking by Tamerlane to the invasion by American troops in 2003 has won the Royal Society of Literature’s £10,000 Ondaatje prize, praised by judges as a “truly monumental achievement”.

Justin Marozzi’s Baghdad was named winner of the prize, which goes to the book – fiction, non-fiction or poetry – that best evokes the “spirit of a place”. The former foreign correspondent beat titles by authors including Elif Shafak, Helen Dunmore and Rana Dasgupta with a book that judge Fiona Sampson described as “moving, passionate and erudite about the repeated tragedy, and the recurring renaissance, that mark the city”.
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