The Booker Prize Foundation has announced the longlist of this year’s International Booker Prize. Known formerly as the Man Booker Prize and worth £50,000, the foundation said in a statement released Thursday that the judges considered 124 books, which they later whittled down to their ‘International Booker Dozen’.
The 13-strong longlist is dominated by Europeans and includes three Latin American authors, two from Asia and one from Africa.
The shortlist will be announced on April 2nd and the winner on May 19th. Last year’s winner was Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth. The Booker Prizes are sponsored by Crankstart, the charitable foundation of Sir Michael Moritz and his wife, Harriet Heyman.
The 2020 International Booker Prize longlist in no particular order:
1. Red Dog by Willem Anker, translated by Michiel Heyns. Pushkin Press.
2. The Enlightenment of The Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated anonymously. Europa Editions.
3. The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Iona Macintyre and Fiona Mackintosh. Charco Press.
4. The Other Name: Septology I – II by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls. Fitzcarraldo Editions.
5. The Eighth Life by Nino Haratiscvili, translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin. Scribe UK.
6. Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq, translated by Shaun Whiteside. William Heinemann.
7. Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin. Quercus.
8. Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes. Fitzcarraldo Editions.
9. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder. Harvill Secker.
10 Faces on the Tip of My Tongue by Emmanuelle Pagano, translated by Sophie Lewis and Jennifer Higgins. Peirene Press.
11. Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell. Oneworld.
12. The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchinson. Faber & Faber.
13. Mac and His Problem by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Sophie Hughes. Harvill Secker.
The selected works were translated from eight languages and explore diverse topics, including grief, dystopias, rural life, and the histories of their countries.
The longlist was selected by a panel of five judges, chaired by Ted Hodgkinson, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at Southbank Centre. The panel also includes: Lucie Campos, director of the Villa Gillet, France’s centre for international writing; Man Booker International Prize-winning translator and writer Jennifer Croft; LA Times Book Prize for Fiction-winning author Valeria Luiselli and writer, poet and musician Jeet Thayil, whose novel Narcopolis was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2012.
Every year, a single book that has been translated into English and published in the UK, is awarded the prize, which is aimed at encouraging publishing as well as reading of quality fiction from across the globe and to promote translators’ works. Both novels and short-story collections are eligible to be considered for the award.