New York author wins 100K for memoir

Even after an administrator from the [Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature] called Lucette Lagnado to say that her memoir, [The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit](http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061453649/The_Man_in_the_White_Sharkskin_Suit/excerpt.aspx) had won, she had her doubts. 

 She called her husband.  “I think I won,” she told him, unsure.  The prize, now in its second year, awards an emerging author $100,000 for a work that examines Jewish values. You read that right: 100K.

Lagnado, who works as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, then sent an email to the Jewish Book Council, which administers the prizes, just to make sure.  They replied, confirming the earlier telephone conversation.

As the night went on, her doubts grew stronger.  “I literally did not believe by the end of the night that I had won.”  Only after the organization sent out its press release, did Lagnado really believe it.

“I think if one focuses on prizes you kind of lose your way.  I have a theory that what you come to expect you don’t often get.”

Lagnado said the award money, which is 10 times that for a Pulitzer Prize, will allow her to travel and research for another book without worrying about finances.  She spent most of her advance for The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit quickly, traveling to Cairo to track down relatives and records to piece together her family’s story of exodus from Egypt. After the money ran out, she relied on her husband for $5 and $10 daily allowances, she said in a telephone interview.  Her husband interrupted in the background.  “My husband insists it was $20,” she said.

Lagnado said she is superstitious about discussing her plans for future writing, but that she plans on following the book’s main character, and the literary version of herself, Lou Lou.  “I love love love the memoir genre.  I have a perfect comfort with it.”

Lagnado will accept the prize this summer in Jerusalem, one of several conditions she agreed to in order to be considered for the Sami Rohr Prize.  “They were the most wonderful sets of conditions,” she said.