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Man Booker International Prize 2018 longlist announced

Tuesday, 13 March 2018   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

The longlist for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize has been announced.

The longlisted titles are:

  • The 7th Function of Language (Laurent Binet, trans by Sam Taylor, Vintage)
  • The Impostor (Javier Cercas, trans by Frank Wynne, MacLehose Press)
  • Vernon Subutex 1 (Virginie Despentes, trans by Frank Wynne, MacLehose Press)
  • Go, Went, Gone (Jenny Erpenbeck, trans by Susan Bernofsky, Portobello Books)
  • The White Book (Han Kang, trans by Deborah Smith, Portobello Books)
  • Die, My Love (Ariana Harwicz, trans by Sarah Moses and Carolina Orloff, Charco Press)
  • The World Goes On (László Krasznahorkai, trans by John Batki, Ottilie Mulzet and George Szirtes, Tuskar Rock Press)
  • Like a Fading Shadow (Antonio Muñoz Molina, trans by Camilo A Ramirez, Tuskar Rock Press)
  • The Flying Mountain (Christoph Ransmayr, trans by Simon Pare, Seagull Books)
  • Frankenstein in Baghdad (Ahmed Saadawi, trans by Jonathan Wright, Oneworld)
  • Flights (Olga Tokarczuk, trans by Jennifer Croft, Text)
  • The Dinner Guest (Gabriela Ybarra, trans by Natasha Wimmer, Harvill Secker)
  • The Stolen Bicycle (Wu Ming-Yi, trans by Darryl Sterk, Text)

The Man Booker International Prize is awarded to a book translated into English. Prior to 2016, the prize was awarded biennially to a body of work.

Australian independent press Text Publishing has two titles on the longlist: Taiwanese author Wu Ming-Yi’s The Stolen Bicycle and Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights.

‘I think we have to raise our hats to independent publishers. It does cost money to translate, it’s harder to publish, harder to sell. But I think the readership for foreign fiction is growing and growing and that can only be a good thing,’ chair of judges Lisa Appignanesi told the Guardian.

‘[Translated fiction] not only opens our minds but it opens our hearts as well. You are living with people as you read,’ she added.

The £50,000 (A$88,350) prize will be shared equally between the winning writer and translator, and each shortlisted author and translator will also receive £1000 (A$1770).

The shortlist will be announced on 12 April, and winner on 22 May.

For more information about the prize, see the Man Booker website.

 

Category: International news