Supported by
Six Books Shortlisted for Man Booker International Prize
LONDON — Two past winners were among the six authors whose books were placed on the shortlist for the Man Booker International Prize on Thursday.
The prize recognizes literary works translated into English and published in Britain. It is distinct from the Man Booker Prize, which is awarded to works originally published in English.
The award comes with a cash prize of 50,000 British pounds, or about $71,000, which is split equally between the author and their translators.
The 2018 nominees are:
• The French author Virginie Despentes’s “Vernon Subutex 1,” about a down-and-out former music store owner in Paris (translated by Frank Wynne).
• The South Korean author Han Kang’s “The White Book,” centering on the death of the unnamed narrator’s older sister (translated by Deborah Smith).
• The Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai’s “The World Goes On,” a collection of 21 stories (translated by John Batki, Ottilie Mulzet and George Szirtes).
• The Spanish author Antonio Muñoz Molina’s “Like a Fading Shadow,” about James Earl Ray, who assassinated the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (translated by Camilo A. Ramirez).
• The Iraqi author Ahmed Saadawi’s “Frankenstein in Baghdad,” a reimagining of Mary Shelley’s monster tale set in the aftermath of the United States’ invasion of Iraq (translated by Jonathan Wright).
• The Polish author Olga Tokarczuk’s “Flights,” a philosophical meditation on modern-day travel (translated by Jennifer Croft).
“This is a shortlist emblematic of the many adventures of fiction — its making and reading,” Lisa Appignanesi, chairwoman of the 2018 Man Booker International Prize judging panel, said in a statement. “We have mesmeric meditations, raucous, sexy, state-of-the-nation stories, haunting sparseness and sprawling tales; enigmatic cabinets of curiosity, and daring acts of imaginative projection — all this plus sparkling encounters with prose in translation.”
Among the six shortlisted authors, Ms. Kang and Ms. Smith previously won the prize in 2016 for “The Vegetarian”; and Mr. Krasznahorkai won in 2015, before the prize’s format was changed.
The Booker Prize Foundation changed the focus of the international award that year to recognize a single book of fiction translated into English and published in Britain. Since 2005, the prize had been awarded to an author for an entire body of work.
This year’s list is also dominated by books from independent publishers, with two books from Tuskar Rock Press, and one each from Fitzcarraldo Editions, MacLehose Press, Oneworld and Portobello Books.
Last year’s Man Booker International Prize went to the Israeli author David Grossman and the translator Jessica Cohen for “A Horse Walks Into a Bar,” about a comedian’s stand-up routine gone wrong.
The winner of this year’s award will be announced on May 22 at a ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum here.
Explore More in Books
Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news? Start here.
James McBride’s novel sold a million copies, and he isn’t sure how he feels about that, as he considers the critical and commercial success of “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.”
How did gender become a scary word? Judith Butler, the theorist who got us talking about the subject, has answers.
You never know what’s going to go wrong in these graphic novels, where Circus tigers, giant spiders, shifting borders and motherhood all threaten to end life as we know it.
When the author Tommy Orange received an impassioned email from a teacher in the Bronx, he dropped everything to visit the students who inspired it.
Do you want to be a better reader? Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor.
Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here.
Advertisement