Andrew Krivak’s War Novel ‘The Sojourn’ Wins Literary Prize

Author Andrew Krivak. (Courtesy of Bellevue Literary Press)

This week the Dayton Literary Prizes were announced. Inspired by the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the Bosnian War, the $10,000 awards are given to works that “promote peace and global understanding.”

Adam Hochschild’s World War I epic, “To End All Wars,” won the non-fiction prize, while Massachusetts author Andrew Krivak won the fiction prize for his debut novel, “The Sojourn,” also centered during the first World War.

Krivak’s book mines his family history to tell the story of Jozef, a shepherd-turned-soldier on the losing side of World War I.

“For as much as this is understood as a war novel, I also want the reader at the end to think it’s a peace novel too. There has to be some coming to grips with peace if there’s this embrace of war,” Krivak told Here & Now‘s Robin Young.

• Book Excerpt: ‘The Sojourn’

This segment originally aired in 2011.

Guest:

• Andrew Krivak, author