LONDON (AP) 鈥 Australian writer Richard Flanagan completed an unprecedented literary double on Tuesday, winning Britain鈥檚 leading nonfiction book prize a decade after being awarded the Booker Prize for fiction.
Flanagan was awarded the 50,000 pound ($63,000) Baillie Gifford Prize for his genre-bending memoir 鈥淨uestion 7,鈥 which combines autobiography, family history and the story of the development of the atomic bomb.
Flanagan won the Booker Prize in 2014 for 鈥淭he Narrow Road to the Deep North,鈥 a novel that drew on his father鈥檚 experiences as a World War II prisoner of the Japanese military.
Baillie Gifford Prize director Toby Mundy said that for the same writer to win the leading U.K.-based fiction and nonfiction awards was 鈥渃ompletely unprecedented.鈥
Journalist Isabel Hilton, who chaired the judging panel, said Flanagan had written a 鈥渕editative symphony of a book鈥 that weaves together 鈥渆normous traumatic events of the 20th century 鈥 with an extraordinary personal narrative.鈥
Hilton said Flanagan鈥檚 fiction background was evident in the book鈥檚 inventiveness and 鈥渘arrative beat.鈥
鈥淚 think the book benefitted from that novelist鈥檚 eye,鈥 she said.
Flanagan was not on hand to receive the trophy in person at a ceremony in London. Organizers said he was trekking in the Tasmanian rainforest.
Flanagan鈥檚 book beat five other finalists, including American writer Annie Jacobsen鈥檚 sobering 鈥淣uclear War: A Scenario鈥 and Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen鈥檚 autobiographical 鈥淎 Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial.鈥
Founded in 1999, the Baillie Gifford Prize recognizes English-language books in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. It has been credited with bringing an eclectic slate of fact-based books to a wider audience.
was John Vaillant鈥檚 real-life climate-change thriller 鈥淔ire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World.鈥
Sponsor Baillie Gifford, an Edinburgh-based finance firm, has faced protests from environmental groups over its investments in fossil fuel businesses. Amid the controversy, the company stopped sponsoring several British book festivals, including the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
That has prompted a backlash from others in the culture world, who say it starves the arts of much-needed funding.
Mundy said the nonfiction prize hoped to renew Baillie Gifford鈥檚 sponsorship, which runs until 2026.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e been exemplary sponsors and I think exemplary supporters of the literary culture of this country,鈥 he said.
