Overview of the Award

The prestigious Sheikh Zayed Book Award has unveiled its winners for the 19th edition, celebrating literary accomplishments across eight categories.

Among the honorees, renowned Japanese author Haruki Murakami has been recognized as the Cultural Personality of the Year. This accolade underscores the award’s commitment to acknowledging significant contributions to literature, cultural understanding, and translation.

Global Representation

This year’s winners come from a diverse array of countries, including:

• United Kingdom
• Italy
• Japan
• France
• Morocco
• United Arab Emirates

For nearly two decades, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award has celebrated writers, scholars, translators, and cultural innovators, reinforcing its role as a beacon of literary excellence.

Haruki Murakami’s Response

In his acceptance remarks, Murakami expressed gratitude, stating: “Receiving the Sheikh Zayed Book Award from the United Arab Emirates comes as both a great surprise and an immense honour to me. Arabic is a language with a long and rich storytelling tradition and it is a great honour for me that my books have been translated and are being read in Arab countries. I believe that stories are a universal language. It is my sincere hope that by sharing good stories, people can connect with each other and that this can become a force, even if only a small one, that moves the world towards peace.”

Award Categories and Notable Winners

Literature

The Literature category saw Hoda Barakat awarded for her novel Hind, or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World (Dar al-Adab). This narrative explores the life of a heroine grappling with acromegaly, a condition that drastically changes her appearance and impacts her sense of identity.

Children’s Literature

In the Children’s Literature category, the winner was Latifa Labsir for her book The Phantom of Sabiba (Markaz Kitab). This novel aims to foster understanding of autism among young readers, featuring Hiba, who shares her experiences of her autistic brother Raji with her classmates.