Würth Prize for European Literature

(c) Peter-Andreas Hassiepen

The Irishman Colm Tóibín is awarded the 14th Würth Prize for European Literature. The writer receives the Würth Foundation's appreciation "for his art of depicting people in novels and narratives as well as for the lucid literary interpretations of his essays and lectures," the jury said. The author is "one of the great European storytellers of his time". The Würth Foundation will present the award, which is endowed with €25,000, in early summer 2024 at the Carmen Würth Forum in Künzelsau.

Colm Tóibín, born in 1955 in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, is considered one of the most important Irish authors of our time, winner of many awards. His oeuvre includes novels such as "Nora Webster" (2014) and "The Blackwater Lightship" (2016), as well as journalism, criticism, drama and more. He became internationally known with his ravishing novel "The Master" about his favorite novelist, the American-British writer Henry James (1999, Eng. "Portrait of the Master in Middle Age", 2001). His novel "Brooklyn" (2004) was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film. As a screenwriter, he wrote the script for the feature film "Return to Montauk" (2005) with Volker Schlöndorff. Most recently, he published the novel "The Magician" (2009), in which he traces the life of Thomas Mann.

"Colm Tóibín transfers the art of observation of the inner world, which was pronounced in the 19th century by Jane Austen, George Eliot and Henry James, into the 21st century, with a view to the technological and civilizational modernization as well as to the upheavals in gender relations," the jury of the Würth Prize for European Literature continues. "His female heroines unfold great charisma: the Irish emigrant Eilis Lacey from Enniscorthy in "Brooklyn", the widow who experiences the return of a dead man in "Nora Webster" beyond all horror romanticism, Clytemnestra, who self-confidently stands by her deed in the Oresteia's retelling "House of Names" (2017, Eng. "House of Names", 2020), and last but not least Maria, who in "The Testament of Mary" (2012, "Mary's Testament", 2014) receives a voice never heard before to protest against her canonization as the Mother of God."

Previous winners:

• 2022 Annie Ernaux

• 2020 David Grossman

• 2018 Christoph Ransmayr

• 2016 Peter Handke

• 2014 Péter Nádas

• 2012 Hanna Krall

• 2010 Ilija Trojanow

• 2008 Peter Turrini

• 2006 Herta Müller

• 2004 Harald Hartung

• 2002 Claude Vigée

• 2000 Claudio Magris

• 1998 Hermann Lenz