International Booker Prize announces longlist
The longlist for the International Booker Prize 2023 has been announced. It features work from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, the oldest writer ever to be nominated, three writers who appear in English for the first time, and books translated from 11 languages.
Other highlights include the first nominations for books originally written in Bulgarian, Catalan and Tamil; a wife and husband author-translator team; works originating in 12 countries; the oldest writer ever to be nominated for the prize, aged 89; one of Ukraine’s best-known writers, who has vowed to stop writing in Russian; a film director, four poets, two former security guards; a writer who had declared himself ‘dead’; elements of Korean fairy tale, French horror, Caribbean gospel, Indian melodrama, Scandinavian saga; and East Germany’s answer to Trainspotting.
The full list is as follows: The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier, translated from French by Daniel Levin Becker; While We Were Dreaming by Clemens Meyer, translated from German by Katy Derbyshire and Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey. These three novels are all published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.
Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrey Kurkov, translated from Russian by Reuben Woolley and Standing Heavy by GauZ’, translated from French by Frank Wynne, both published by MacLehose Press.
Eva Baltasar, writing in Catalan, and translator Julia Sanches for Boulder, published by And Other Stories; the Korean author of Whale, Cheon Myeong-kwan, and translator Chi-Young Kim (Europa Editions); and Maryse Condé, author of The Gospel According to the New World, writing in French, translated by Richard Philcox (World Editions).
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel (W&N); Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth, translated from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund (Verso Fiction) are also longlisted, alongside Pyre by Perumal Murugan, translated from Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan (Pushkin Press), A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding by Amanda Svensson, translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley (Scribe UK) and Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang (Honford Star).
The shortlist will be announced at the London Book Fair on 18 April and the winner will be announced at a ceremony held at Sky Garden in London on Tuesday 23 May. The winners’ prize purse is £50,000; £25,000 for the author and £25,000 for the translator(s).
