Atwood, Rushdie Booker Prize 2019 Finalists
September 3, 2019
We celebrate the respective publications today and September 10 of Salman Rushdie’s QUICHOTTE and THE TESTAMENTS by Margaret Atwood with the happy news that both novels make the shortlist for the 2019 Booker Prize. In all, 4 fiction works from our U.S., Canada, and U.K. imprints have been selected as finalists by the London-based judges for this coveted English-language fiction annual award.
THE TESTAMENTS by Margaret Atwood
U.S.: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday
Canada: McClelland & Stewart
UK: Chatto & Windus
QUICHOTTE by Salman Rushdie
U.S.: Random House
Canada: Knopf Canada
UK: Jonathan Cape
GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER by Bernardine Evaristo
UK: Hamish Hamilton
10 MINUTES 38 SECONDS IN THIS STRANGE WORLD by Elif Shafak
UK: Viking UK
Click here for the complete 2019 Booker Prize short list.
Hearty congratulations to Mr. Rushdie and Ms. Atwood as well as Ms. Evaristo and Ms. Shafak, and their publishing teams across our companies.
On to the awards dinner in London on Monday, October 14. Bertelsmann’s Thomas Rabe Hosts Lunch for Salman Rushdie in Berlin
December 8, 2017
Thomas Rabe welcomed Salman Rushdie, one of Penguin Random House’s most renowned authors, to Bertelsmann Unter den Linden 1 in Berlin last Friday, December 1. Bertelsmann’s Chairman and CEO hosted a private lunch to honor Mr. Rushdie, praising him as a defender of freedom of speech and a brilliant storyteller. “We are grateful and proud to have served, for decades, as the publishing home to such an eminent author,” said Mr. Rabe. 
Mr. Rushdie was promoting his new novel THE GOLDEN HOUSE in Germany. The book, which paints a panorama of a deeply divided American society, was published in September by Penguin Random House in the U.S., Great Britain, and many other regions. C. Bertelsmann published the book in German-speaking countries. THE GOLDEN HOUSE is set against the backdrop of American culture and politics in the Obama years, and covers topics such as the rise of the Tea Party, the revolt against political correctness, and the triumph of an “ambitious and narcissistic man with dyed hair.”
Salman Rushdie, born in Bombay in 1947, has been published by Bertelsmann publishers since 1981, first in Britain, then in the U.S., and now worldwide. His twelve novels have won prestigious international awards, including the Booker Prize, and they have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was knighted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.