The 13-strong longlist for the International Booker Prize 2023 features work translated from 11 languages, including first nominations for books originally written in Bulgarian, Catalan and Tamil. The list spans 12 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, featuring elements of Korean fairy tale, French horror, Caribbean gospel, Indian melodrama, Scandinavian saga and East Germany’s answer to Trainspotting
There is a gap of 54 years between the oldest and youngest nominees.
Maryse Condé, 89, is the oldest writer to ever be longlisted for the prize. Born in Guadeloupe and described by the judges as “the great voice of the Caribbean”, she dictated The Gospel According to the New World to Richard Philcox, her husband and translator, having lost her sight. At 35, Amanda Svensson is the youngest author on the longlist for A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding, translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley. Svensson is also a successful translator, collaborating with among others Booker Prize shortlisted author Ali Smith.
Leïla Slimani, author and chair of judges, said: “Through literature we experience the fact that we are, at the end of the day, just human beings. We cry the same. We are moved by the same things. We are all afraid, we all fall in love and we have the same emotions. And this is the point of translation, that all over the world we can understand an emotion.
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“What was very rewarding about this experience was reading books from all over the world, with an extraordinary variety of form and content. Each of the judges had different tastes and that is what we have tried to reflect in this list. It celebrates the variety and diversity of literary production today, the different ways in which the novel can be viewed. We wanted to give the reader the chance to discover this and to find something that will move or disturb them. The list is also a celebration of the power of language and of authors who wanted to push formal enquiry as far as possible. We wanted to celebrate literary ambition, panache, originality and of course, through this, the talent of translators who have been able to convey all of this with great skill.”
Fiammetta Rocco, administrator of the prize, said: “To read a book translated from another language is to embark on a global adventure. The judges looked closely not just at what the writers and their translators were telling us about the world we live in, but also at how they told us. The panel talked about ideas and emotion in fiction, about form, structure, originality, poetry, ethics, character and the importance of humour.
“The longlist for the International Booker Prize 2023 leaps from Mexico to Sweden, from Norway to South Korea, from China to Guadeloupe, from Côte d’Ivoire to Ukraine. Through fable and myth, stories and sagas, it proves that reading has no borders.’
The longlist
Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated from Catalan by Julia Sanches
Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim
The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé, translated from French by Richard Philcox
Standing Heavy by GauZ’, translated from French by Frank Wynne
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth, translated from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund
Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrey Kurkov, translated from Russian by Rueben Woolley
The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier, translated from French by Daniel Levin Becker
While We Were Dreaming by Clemens Meyer, translated from German by Katy Derbyshire
Pyre by Perumal Murugan, translated from Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey
A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding by Amanda Svensson, translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley
Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang
GauZ’, Zou Jingzhi and Svensson are nominated for their first works to appear in English. Three of the translators on the longlist have been nominated for the prize before. Katy Derbyshire was longlisted in 2017 for her translation of Clemens Meyer’s Bricks and Mortar. Frank Wynne was shortlisted in 2018 for his translation of Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes and Nichola Smalley was longlisted in 2021 for her translation of Andrzej Tichý's Wretchedness.
Ivorian author, editor and photographer GauZ’ moved to Paris as an undocumented student, working as a security guard before returning to Côte d’Ivoire. His novels have won multiple awards, including Le Prix des libraires Gibert Joseph, Prix Éthiophile, and Black Manoo.
Andrey Kurkov is best known for his novel Death and the Penguin, which has been translated into more than 30 languages and was an international bestseller. In the past year he has been an outspoken critic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Like many Ukrainian writers, he has vowed to stop writing in Russian in response to the invasion.
In 2015, Indian author Perumal Murugan declared himself ‘dead’ and announced his retirement from writing following protests, litigation and the burning of his book Maadhorubaagan by caste-based groups. At a court case in 2016 centred on the book, the judge ruled: ‘Let the author be resurrected to what he is best at. Write.’ For Murugan, the statement was both ‘a command and a benediction’ to resume writing.
The six books shortlisted for this year’s prize will be announced by Slimani on April 18th. 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 winner will be announced on May 23rd. The winners’ prize purse is £50,000; £25,000 for the author and £25,000 for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators).
