Linda Grant wins Wingate Literary Prize 2020 for her book 'A Stranger City'

Linda Grant is one of the finest English novelists and journalists in today's time. She has also been the winner of the Orange Prize 2020, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2008. Recently, Linda Grant won the Wingate Literary Prize 2020, for her 2019 published novel, A Stranger City.

She started writing for her seventh novel in September 2016, when Brexit was in news. The book was said to be ‘a coming of age for Jews in Britain’. Read ahead to know more-

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Linda Grant won the Wingate Literary Prize 2020 for A Stranger City

A Stranger City is set around the idea of home. The book portrays the lives of the people in contemporary London, and how they are all different yet interconnected. After winning the award, the author said in an interview with a leading daily that she has been writing books with Jewish themes since 1996, so it has been a long wait to finally win this most prestigious prize.

She knows, from being a judge herself in 1998, the immensely high standard of work submitted and this year was particularly daunting, as she has read several of the books on the shortlist and was stunned to have even been considered let alone awarded the prize.

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Praising Linda Grant and A Stranger City, Judge, Clive Lawton also made a statement saying that the book is a superb piece of writing about London life and its complexity. He said that within a diverse and impressive short-list of books, all of which would have been worthy winners of the Wingate prize, A Stranger City very much felt like work for the 21st Century and a coming of age for Jews in Britain.

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Wingate Literary Prize, established in 1977, is awarded to recognise authors and writing which explores the idea of Jewishness to the general reader. It is awarded to the best book of either fiction or non-fiction genre. Wingate Literary Prize 2020 is the 43rd year of the literary award which is worth £4,000.

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