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- South African author Jonny Steinberg won the best biography prize for his novel Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards in New York last week.
- This is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the publishing industry.
- The NBCC was founded in 1974 at the Algonquin Hotel in New York by prominent critics.
Bestselling South African author and scholar Jonny Steinberg won the best biography prize for his novel Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards in New York last week, according to Jonathan Ball Publishers.
This is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the publishing industry.
Winnie & Nelson was News24's Book of the Month for May 2023.
"Steinberg's deeply insightful, painstakingly researched Winnie & Nelson unmasks the Mandelas, sliding past their public mythos, and the simpler romantic narrative they told each other, to reveal the emotional labyrinth beneath," committee chair Elizabeth Taylor noted.
"With its exploration of two radically different approaches to apartheid, this beautiful biography speaks movingly to present-day struggles for racial justice," Taylor added.
Upon receiving the honour, Steinberg said:
The NBCC was founded in 1974 at the Algonquin Hotel in New York by a group of prominent critics. The group awarded its first set of honours in 1975.
"Comprising more than 700 working critics and book-review editors throughout the country, the NBCC annually bestows its awards in six categories, honouring the best books published in the past year in the United States," the release continued.
Winnie & Nelson is an account of the pair's "unique marriage – its longings, its obsessions, its deceits – making South African history a page-turning political biography," the release said.
READ MORE | Love turning like quicksilver: Jonny Steinberg’s Winnie & Nelson
The description continues: "Winnie and Nelson is a modern epic in which trauma doesn't affect just the couple at its centre but an entire nation. It is also a Shakespearean drama in which bonds of love and commitment mingle with timeless questions of revolution, such as whether to seek retribution or a negotiated peace."
"Told with power and tender emotional insight, Steinberg reveals how far these forever entwined leaders would go for one another, and also, where they drew the line," it continues.
