This year, the Alfred Döblin Prize, donated by the writer Günter Grass (1927-2015), goes to the Leipzig-based author Jan Kuhlbrodt ("The Return of the Animals"). The award, which is endowed with 15,000 euros, was presented to the 57-year-old on Saturday at the Berlin Literary Colloquium, as announced by the co-organising Academy of Arts.

From the jury's point of view, Kuhlbrodt wrote multi-layered prose with "Cripple Text or From Walking" that "confronts his own MS disease with great fearlessness, astonishing comedy and theoretical wit". MS (Multiple Sclerosis) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system.

The Alfred Döblin Prize has been awarded every two years since 1979 for an unfinished prose manuscript. The youngest recipients include Deniz Utlu, Ulrich Woelk and María Cecilia Barbetta.

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