April 7, 2022, 9:29am
The International Booker Prize just announced its shortlist for this year’s award, which goes to “the finest fiction from around the world” to be published in English translation and grants a £50,000 prize (split between an author and translator).
Judges read 135 books to select the six titles, which were originally published in six different languages. As in past years, most of the titles on the list come from independent publishers; this year, women also dominate the group (five of the books were written by women, and three translated by women).
Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk and translator Jennifer Croft are on the list for The Books of Jacob, marking the second time the pair has been nominated for the prize; they won it in 2018 for the novel Flights. The list also includes Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated by Daisy Rockwell, which was the first Hindi title to be longlisted for the award.
Here is the full list:
A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse, translated from Norwegian by Damion Searls (Transit Books)
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated from Korean by Anton Hur (Honford Star)
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Jennifer Croft (Riverhead Books)
Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell (Tilted Axis Press)
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Samuel Bett and David Boyd (Europa Editions)
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, translated from Spanish by Frances Riddle (Charco Press)
The prize will be awarded on May 26.