Flouting convention, the 2019 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded to two authors, Margaret Atwood for The Testaments and Bernardine Evaristo for Girl, Woman, Other. Atwood’s novel, written from the perspective of three narrators, is set fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, while Evaristo’s follows twelve characters through twelve chapters as they chart a course through several decades of life in the United Kingdom.
The Booker Prize is one of the world’s most prominent literary awards, given each year to the best original novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom. Now with a £50,000 award, the last time the prize was shared was back in 1992, when it was split between Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient and Barry Unsworth’s Sacred Hunger: in response, a rule established that the Booker Prize could have but one recipient. However after more than five hours of deliberation on Monday night, the chair of judges Peter Florence emerged to announce joint winners.
In the process Bernardine Evaristo becomes the first black female recipient of the Booker Prize for Fiction, and the first black British author. Margaret Atwood becomes one of four authors to have won the Booker twice – following her success in 2000 for The Blind Assassin – while at the age of 79 years old, she also becomes the prize’s oldest victor. Lucy Ellmann for Ducks, Newburyport, Chigozie Obioma for An Orchestra of Minorities, Salman Rushdie for Quichotte, and Elif Shafak for 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World made up the six-strong shortlist.
* * *
From a shortlist which apparently included Zazie Beetz, Eiza González, and Alicia Vikander, it was Zoë Kravitz – star of Big Little Lies, Divergent, and Fantastic Beasts – who slunk ahead of the pack to emerge this week as the next Catwoman. Kravitz will play opposite Robert Pattinson’s Batman, in a film directed by Matt Reeves and scheduled for the 2021 summer season.
* * *
The largest wildlife photography competition in the world, the latest iteration of Wildlife Photographer of the Year attracted over 48,000 entries from 100 countries. The overall winner was selected as Yongqing Bao, for his photograph ‘The Moment’, which captures a Tibetan fox turning on a startled Himalayan marmot on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, high up in the Qilian Mountains.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is awarded in conjunction with London’s Natural History Museum. The director of the museum, Sir Michael Dixon, said of ‘The Moment’:
‘This compelling picture captures nature’s ultimate challenge: its battle for survival. The area in which this was taken, often referred to as the ‘Third Pole’ because of the enormous water reserves held by its ice fields, is under threat from dramatic temperature rises like those seen in the Arctic. At a time when precious habitats are facing increasing climate pressures, seeing these fleeting yet fascinating moments reminds us of what we need to protect.’
Other winners were selected in black and white, animal portrait, portfolio, and rising star categories. The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition will run at the Natural History Museum from 18 October until 31 May, before going on tour.
* * *
On Wednesday the BBC released its annual list of one hundred of the world’s most inspiring and influential women, incorporating policymakers, lawyers, environmentalists and other activists, designers, poets, and artists, doctors, entrepreneurs, pioneers in the field of artificial intelligence, ballet dancers, footballers, and track and field athletes. The reveal came with commentary from Scarlett Curtis, writer and founder of the campaign group The Pink Protest.
* * *
Despite some oddly timed assertions to the contrary, Studio Ghibli films will be available to stream for the first time from next spring. The Japanese animation studio, co-founded by the director Hayao Miyazaki, has previously withheld its films from all manner of digital services, saving them for DVD and Blu-ray editions and frequent theatrical revivals. But a deal with HBO Max, a new service set to launch in the United States in the spring, will see the likes of My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl’s Moving Castle make their streaming debuts. The Wind Rises, Miyazaki’s latest film, will reach HBO Max in time for autumn.
* * *
As the world awaits Jesus Is King, Kanye West’s upcoming album, we at least got a trailer for the accompanying IMAX documentary film. An outgrowth of Kanye’s gospel-infused, collaborative Sunday Services, the film is directed by Nick Knight and was shot over the summer, primarily in the Roden Crater, the artist James Turrell’s never-before-seen installation in Arizona’s Painted Desert. Turrell, an artist loosely affiliated with the Light and Space movement, has been working on the Roden Crater since purchasing the site in 1979.
The documentary promises a ‘one-of-a-kind experience’ featuring ‘songs arranged by West in the gospel tradition along with new music from his forthcoming album Jesus Is King – all presented in the immersive sound and stunning clarity of The IMAX Experience’. Tickets are on sale now in the United States, with showings expected from 24 October.
* * *
Saturday night saw Game 6 of the American League Championship Series in baseball, a series pitting the Houston Astros against the New York Yankees. And a walk-off home run from José Altuve, after a topsy-turvy ninth inning, gave the Houston Astros the 4-2 victory over the series and the American League pennant. Altuve was subsequently named the series MVP. Houston will face the Washington Nationals in the World Series, which begins on Tuesday, after the Nationals completed a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League pennant earlier in the week.
* * *
Nick Tosches, the journalist, biographer, fiction author and poet, died on Sunday aged 69. Tosches made his name in music journalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, becoming known as one of the ‘Noise Boys’, writing for Creem and Rolling Stone alongside Lester Bangs and Richard Meltzer. His first book – Country: The Biggest Music in America – was published in 1977, and Tosches followed it up with acclaimed biographies of Jerry Lee Lewis and Dean Martin among others, before increasingly turning to fiction.
* * *
Bolivia held its general election on Sunday, pitting the incumbent president Evo Morales and the Movement for Socialism against Morales’ main challenger, former president Carlos Mesa, who leads the centrist Civic Community coalition and the Revolutionary Left Front. Morales has served as president of Bolivia since 2006, but despite the strides the country has made in reducing poverty and illiteracy, he has faced increasing allegations of authoritarianism. In 2009, Bolivia introduced term limits meant to limit a president to two terms in office, but in 2016 – despite losing a referendum – Morales successfully had the ruling overturned, as the Supreme Tribunal of Justice controversially ruled term limits a violation of human rights.
Morales is Latin America’s first indigenous leader, but his support has also suffered in the wake of recent wildfires amid demonstrations over the government’s response. Facing a tough battle but widely expected to win Sunday’s election, by 8 pm a rapid count had Morales with 45% of the vote and Mesa trailing on 38%, with most of the ballots counted. This would have meant a runoff vote, scheduled for December, as to win the Bolivian presidency outright a candidate must either win by a 10-point margin or else receive an overall majority of the vote. Then the Supreme Electoral Tribunal abruptly stopped updating the results, leaving both sides declaring victory, provoking international concern, and leaving an uncertain outcome.
