The 2021 International Booker Prize longlist has been revealed — 13 wonderful books picked from 125 submissions.
The Prize is given every year to a book translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland, with the aim of encouraging more people to read fiction in translation. The winning author and translator split £50,000 in prize money, with each shortlisted author and translator receiving £1,000.
Chair of judges Lucy Hughes-Hallett said,
‘Authors cross borders, and so do books, refusing to stay put in rigidly separated categories. We’ve read books that were like biographies, like myths, like essays, like meditations, like works of history – each one transformed into a work of fiction by the creative energy of the author’s imagination. Thanks to those remarkable books, and to their translators, we’ve been freed to explore the world. We hope this prize will inspire many more readers to follow us.’
The shortlist will be announced on the 22nd of April, with the winner announced on the 2nd of June. Read on for the full 2021 International Booker Prize longlist!
I Live in the Slums by Can Xue, translated from Chinese by Karen Gernant & Chen Zeping
At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop, translated from French by Anna Mocschovakis
The Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili, translated from Georgian by Elizabeth Heighway (eBook)
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez, translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut, translated from Spanish by Adrian Nathan West
The Perfect Nine: The Epic Gikuyu and Mumbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, translated from Gikuyu by the author (eBook)
The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken
Summer Brother by Jaap Robben, translated from Dutch by David Doherty
An Inventory of Losses by Judith Schalansky, translated from German by Jackie Smith
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette
In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, translated from Russian by Sasha Dugdale
Wretchedness by Andrzej Tichý, translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley
The War of the Poor by Éric Vuillard, translated from French by Mark Polizzotti
Congratulations to all of the authors on the 2021 International Booker Prize longlist!
Find out more about the International Booker Prize 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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Comments
April 6, 2021 at 7:25 am
I have the Pear field and In Memory or Memory and Minor DetaiL so off to a good start. Thanks for the round up.