Today, Tuesday 9th April, the 2024 shortlist for the International Booker Prize, the world’s most significant award for a single work of translated fiction, is announced.
• Six languages (Dutch, German, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish), six countries (Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea and Sweden) and three continents (Asia, Europe and South America) are represented
• Chair of Judges Eleanor Wachtel says: ‘Our shortlist, while implicitly optimistic, engages with current realities of racism and oppression, global violence and ecological disaster’
• Among the authors and translators, nine women and four men are shortlisted
Each year the International Booker Prize introduces readers to the best novels and short story collections from around the globe that have been translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland. The prize recognises the vital work of translators with the £50,000 prize money divided equally: £25,000 for the author and £25,000 for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators). In addition, there is a prize of £5,000 for each of the shortlisted titles: £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators).
The six books on the shortlist have been chosen by this year’s judging panel, chaired by esteemed writer and broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel. She is joined by award-winning poet Natalie Diaz; Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Romesh Gunesekera; ground-breaking visual artist William Kentridge; and writer, editor and translator Aaron Robertson.
The International Booker Prize 2024 ceremony will take place from 7pm BST on Tuesday 21st May. It is being held for the first time in the Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern. Highlights from the event, including the announcement of the winning book for 2024, will be livestreamed on the Booker Prizes’ channels, presented by YouTuber Jack Edwards, who is known as the ‘internet’s resident librarian’.
The shortlist was chosen from a longlist of 13 titles announced in March, which was selected from 149 books published in the UK and/or Ireland between May 1st, 2023 and April 30th, 2024 and submitted to the prize by publishers.
Fiammetta Rocco, Administrator of the International Booker Prize, adds:
‘Reading 149 books in six months takes courage. The judges of the International Booker Prize 2024, led by Eleanor Wachtel, rose brilliantly to the challenge of tackling the largest number of books ever submitted for the prize. Born on three continents, the five panellists drew on a lifetime of experience as readers, writers and translators, bringing conviction, insight and laughter to their monthly discussions, certain in the knowledge that great fiction creates empathy and forever changes the reader.
‘The judging panel will meet one last time, in London, next month to choose the winner for 2024. The victorious title – its author and translator – will be announced on 21 May at a ceremony at Tate Modern, aptly known as the home of “great art from around the world”.’
The International Booker Prize 2024 shortlist is:
Not a River by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann
The Details by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson
Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma, translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey
Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz
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