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De Kerangal wins 2017 Wellcome Book Prize

Maylis de Kerangal has won the 2017 Wellcome Book Prize for Mend the Living (MacLehose Press), a novel that tracks the journey of a heart from donor to recipient over 24 hours, reports the Guardian.

The annual prize, worth £30,000 (A$51,075), is for the best new work of fiction or nonfiction centred on medicine and health. De Kerangal’s book is only the second novel to have won the prize.

Chair of judges Val McDermid said: ‘Sometimes you read a memoir and it is just one person’s tragedy, but this is about the tragedy and hope that comes from loss that could affect every single one of us’, adding that the judges ‘felt very strongly’ that the book had the potential to change the lives of readers.

For more information about the Wellcome Book Prize, visit the website here.

 

Category: International news