Womens Prize For Fiction Winner

When I Lived in Modern Times

by Linda Grant

Summary

A young English hairdresser sails to Tel Aviv in 1946 and reinvents herself amid the turmoil of a nation about to be born. Grant captures the heat, idealism and danger of the late Mandate years, where identity is as easy to change as a name. Her heroine's search for belonging becomes a vivid meditation on exile and the founding of Israel.

Historical Context & Significance

Linda Grant drew on extensive research into the British Mandate, and the win raised her profile as a chronicler of Jewish identity.