Avi Shlaim wins PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2024 for ‘deeply moving’ memoir

Avi Shlaim has won the £2,000 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2024 for Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew (Oneworld).

The prize is endowed by former English PEN member Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman’s bequest, and celebrates the best non-fiction on any historical subject. The winner was announced at a ceremony held at the October Gallery in London.

This year’s judging panel was chaired by writer and editor Sharmilla Beezmohun, who was joined by Professor Clare Anderson and Dr Venetia Porter. Beezmohun said the book offers “a stunning new window on present-day politics”, while Porter described it as an “essential book” on the “often bewildering politics of identity associated with the foundation of the state of Israel”.

Porter added: “This poignant and important book interweaves the author’s own history with that of the final decades of the Jewish community in Iraq.”

Daniel Gorman, the director of English PEN, commented: “We are honoured to award this year’s PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize to Avi Shlaim for Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew. His incisive and deeply moving memoir masterfully intertwines personal and political histories, offering timely reflections that challenge us to reconsider identity, belonging, and the ties that shape us.”