The Booker Prize Foundation has announced the 2020 International Booker Prize longlist!
The International Booker Prize celebrates fiction in translation from across the globe, with the author and the translator of the winning book receiving £50,000 between them.
The longlist this year was chosen from 124 books by a panel of five judges: Ted Hodgkinson, Lucie Campos, Jennifer Croft, Valeria Luiselli and Jeet Thayil.
Panel Chair Ted Hodgkinson said this of the longlist:
“What a thrill to share a longlist of such breadth and brilliance, reflecting a cumulative artistry rooted in dialogue between authors and translators, and possessing a power to enlarge the scope of lives encountered on the page, from the epic to the everyday. Whether reimagining foundational myths, envisioning dystopias of disquieting potency, or simply setting the world ablaze with the precision of their perceptions, these are books that left indelible impressions on us as judges. In times that increasingly ask us to take sides, these works of art transcend moral certainties and narrowing identities, restoring a sense of the wonderment at the expansive and ambiguous lot of humanity.”
This is a longlist in which independent publishing shines, with nine of the thirteen nominated books published by indie presses. Twice-nominated author Samanta Schweblin (Little Eyes) appears on the longlist again alongside Shokoofeh Azar, whose novel The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree was a Stella Prize nominee in 2018. Translator Sophie Hughes is also nominated twice this year, for her work on Enrique Vila-Matas’ Mac and his Problem and Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season.
The shortlist will be announced in London on the 2nd of April – check out the longlist below!
Red Dog by Willem Anker, translated by Michiel Heyns from Afrikaans
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated by Anonymous from Farsi
The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Iona Macintyre and Fiona Mackintosh from Spanish
The Other Name: Septology I-II by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls from Norwegian
The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili, translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin from German
Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq, translated by Shaun Whiteside from French
Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin from German
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes from Spanish
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogowa, translated by Stephen Snyder from Japanese
Faces on the Tip of My Tongue by Emmanuelle Pagano, translated by Sophie Lewis and Jennifer Higgins from French
Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell from Spanish
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchison from Dutch
Mac and His Problem by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Sophie Hughes from Spanish
Congratulations to all the authors and translators on the 2020 International Booker Prize longlist!
For more information about the Prize, click here.
About the Contributor
Olivia Fricot
Olivia Fricot (she/her) is Booktopia's Senior Content Producer and editor of the Booktopian blog. She has too many plants and not enough bookshelves, and you can usually find her reading, baking, or talking to said plants. She is pro-Oxford comma.
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