Linda Grant wins a prize and it's not for fiction this time

Well knock me down with a feather. Linda Grant has just been awarded a prize for her latest book.

WINNER OF THE LETTRE ULYSSES AWARD FOR THE ART OF REPORTAGE 2006

The international jury of the Lettre Ulysses Award, the only world prize for literary reportage, announced this year’s winner on September 30thth in Berlin’s TIPI Tent, in the presence of all seven finalists, the international jury of prestigious reportage writers and more than 500 international guests from the worlds of art and culture, media, politics and diplomacy.

The winners:

The first prize of 50,000 USD and a trophy designed by the Berlin artist Jakob Mattner were awarded to:

LINDA GRANT, Great Britain: The People on the Street. A Writer’s View of Israel, Virago Press, London, 2006. The British journalist and writer Linda Grant, a non-religious Diaspora Jew, travels to Tel Aviv in 2003. Her visit becomes an opportunity for a systematic and in-depth exploration of Jewish identity and its relationship with the state of Israel. Her book is a journey through an extraordinary and problematic society, through the languages and biographies of its inhabitants, their archetypes and histories, their doubts and their hopes. Observations from a troubled land that is determined to defend its existence and that is ensnared in a conflict that seems to promise tragic consequences rather than peaceful prospects.

Now in all honesty I must say that I don't like Linda Grant and I certainly don't respect her as a journalist but even I have to say mazel tov Linda! Fifty grand for zionist apologetics! I'm on the wrong side.