The Royal Society of Literature today named Aida Edemariam the winner of the 2019 RSL Ondaatje Prize for The Wife’s Tale, a work that blends memoir, fiction, and poetry and is based on the life of her nonagenarian grandmother. The annual prize, now in its 15th year, awards £10,000 to a work of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry for “evoking the spirit of a place.”
Judge Michèle Roberts said of the winning book, “The Wife’s Tale is beautifully written, carefully researched and richly imagined, an exquisite blend of memoir, fiction, poetry and invocation. This is a book I shall constantly re-read as well as recommend to everyone i know who loves literature.”
