International Booker Prize longlist roams far beyond the Anglosphere
The 13-strong International Booker Prize longlist featuring some of the finest fiction worldwide translated into English — takes readers “to multiple worlds beyond the Anglosphere”. Bringing the work of talented, diverse international authors to the attention of English-speaking readers, it is often more exciting than its progenitor.
The prize also promotes the importance of translation as an art form in itself.
The 2023 list, announced on March 14, features works from 12 countries including, for the first time, works originally written in Bulgarian, Catalan and Tamil.
French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani, chair of the International Booker Prize 2023 judges, said: “The list is also a celebration of the power of language and of authors who wanted to push formal inquiry as far as possible. We wanted to celebrate literary ambition, panache, originality and of course, through this, the talent of translators who have been able to convey all of this with great skill.”
On the list are a wife and husband author-translator team, a first in the history of the prize. Described by the judges as “the great voice of the Caribbean”, 89-year-old celebrated Guadeloupean writer Maryse Condé is also the oldest yet to be long-listed for the prize. She lost her sight due to a degenerative neurological disorder and dictated The Gospel According to the New World to Richard Philcox. The novel follows the journey of miracle baby Pascal, who is rumoured to be the child of God.
● There’s a gap of 54 years between Condé and Amanda Svensson, who at 35 is the youngest author on the longlist for A System So Magnificent
It Is Blinding, translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley. The family saga asks questions about free will, forgiveness and interconnectedness, and whether we are free to create our own destinies or simply part of a system over which we have no control.
● Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov, who writes fiction in Russian, is longlisted for Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv, translated by Reuben Woolley. Best known for his novel Death and the Penguin, Kurkov is a vocal critic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in his role as commentator and journalist. The judges describe the book as “shot through with Kurkov’s unique brand of black humour and vodka-fuelled magic realism”, pronouncing it “an affectionate portrait of one of the world’s most intriguing cities”.
● Representing Africa is GauZ’, the author name of Ivorian Patrick Armand-Gbaka Brede, whose novel Standing Heavy, translated by Frank Wynne, is set against the backdrop of continuously changing French immigration laws.
The judges describe it as a “sharply satirical yet poignant tale [that] draws on the author’s own experiences as an undocumented student in Paris”.
● In Pyre, by respected author and professor of Tamil literature Perumal Murugan, translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, “young love is pitted against social discrimination” in 1980s rural Tamil Nadu.
Two newlyweds harbour a dangerous secret. They belong to different castes, and when malicious rumours start, their lives are in peril. Murugan has come under fire in the past for his portrayals of rural life in South India.
In 2015, he declared himself dead as a writer after protests by right-wing Hindu and caste groups, but he has made a welcome return with this compelling novel.
● For fans of Korean fiction, Whale by Cheon Myeongkwan, translated by Chi-Young kim, is described as a riot of a book. “A carnivalesque fairy tale that celebrates independence and enterprise, a picaresque quest through Korea’s landscapes and history …a hymn to restlessness and self-transformation.”
“To read a book translated from another language is to embark on a global adventure,” said Fiammetta Rocco, administrator of the International Booker Prize. “The judges looked closely not just at what the writers and their translators were telling us about the world we live in, but also at how they told us.
“The panel talked about ideas and emotion in fiction, about form, structure, originality, poetry, ethics, character and the importance of humour. The long-list … leaps from Mexico to Sweden, from Norway to South Korea, from China to Guadeloupe, from Ivory Coast to Ukraine. Through fable and myth, stories and sagas, it proves that reading has no borders.”
THE LONGLIST
Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated from Catalan by Julia Sanches
Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim
The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé, translated from French by Richard Philcox
Standing Heavy by GauZ’, translated from French by Frank Wynne Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth, translated from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund
Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrey Kurkov, translated from Russian by Rueben Woolley
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
Pyre by Perumal Murugan, translated from Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey
A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding by Amanda Svensson, translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley
Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang