Question 7 by Richard Flanagan (published in the U.S. by Knopf) has won the £50,000 (about $63,300) 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He thus becomes the first author to "win the double" of the Booker Prize for Fiction and the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He won the Booker in 2014 for The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Organizers wrote, "Beginning at a love hotel by Japan's Inland Sea and ending by a river in Tasmania, Question 7 is about the choices we make about love and the chain reaction that follows. Exploring the value of life, Flanagan tackles far-ranging seemingly disparate personal and historical topics, from H.G. Wells' affair with Rebecca West, to the atomic bomb and his own near-death experience, expertly documenting life's chain reaction: from past to present to future."
Chair of judges Isabel Hilton added: "Question 7 is an astonishingly accomplished meditation on memory, history, trauma, love and death--and an intricately woven exploration of the chains of consequence that frame a life.
"In a year rich in remarkable books, Richard Flanagan's Question 7 spoke to the judges for its outstanding literary qualities and its profound humanity. This compelling memoir ranges from intimate human relations to an unflinching examination of the horrors of the 20th century, reflecting on unanswerable questions that we must keep asking."
In a video aired at the award presentation last night in London, Flanagan, who is Australian, said he would decline to accept the award money until Baillie Gifford, a fund manager, "shares a plan to reduce its investment in fossil fuel extraction and increase investments in renewables," the Guardian wrote. He added that he would welcome a chance to speak with the company's board to "describe how fossil fuels are destroying our country" and said his words shouldn't be seen as a criticism of Baillie Gifford.
The Guardian noted that Baillie Gifford, which has sponsored the prize since 2016, "has come under fire in recent years because of its investments in fossil fuels and companies linked to Israel. Earlier this year, literary festival boycotts organised by campaign group Fossil Free Books led to the termination of partnerships between Baillie Gifford and nine festivals... Speaking at the ceremony, Baillie Gifford's partner Peter Singlehurst said that with the support of the literary community 'we would dearly love to continue sponsoring this magnificent prize.' "