New languages and old queer classics: International Booker Prize releases longlist

From tales of Palestinian disappearances to the first translation of a Dutch queer classic, the International Booker Prize longlist is once again a smorgasbord of fascinating fiction from around the world.

Established in 2005 as a biennial prize to celebrate longform fiction translated into English, alongside the Booker Prize, the International Booker recognises the best of international fiction, and awards both the original writer and the translator.

For this year’s longlist, 154 books were submitted which were combed over by the judging panel including bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter as chair. Porter is joined by poet, director and photographer Caleb Femi; writer and Publishing Director Sana Goyal; author and International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Anton Hur; and award-winning singer-songwriter Beth Orton.

“Translated fiction is not an elite or rarefied cultural space requiring expert knowledge; it is the exact opposite. It is stories of every conceivable kind from everywhere, for everyone. It is a miraculous way in which we might meet one another in all our strangeness and sameness, and defy the borders erected between us,” Porter said.

“As we searched for our longlist amongst the 154 books submitted, we marvelled at what the world was thinking. How are people making sense of these times using the novel as a vehicle for thought and feeling?” he added.

Nominees represent 15 nationalities across five continents, with Romanian and Surinamese-Dutch writers and an Iraqi translator featuring for the first time. The longlist also brakes new linguistic ground for the prize, featuring books translated from southwestern Indian language Kannada and Romanian.

It’s also a notably brief collection of books. Of the 13 books, 11 are under 250 pages with the shortest coming in at 97 pages. Only Mircea Cărtărescu’s ‘Solenoid’ breaks the 300-page ceiling at 627 pages.

All the authors are first-time nominees, with four translators returning to the list. It’s Sophie Hughes’ fifth nomination. Hughes’ pick marks a record for the prize and the first time she’s been rewarded for an Italian translation after being recognised for her work translating from Spanish.

Many of the nominees are already acclaimed works in their original language.

Danish author Solvej Balle won the prestigious Nordic Council Literature Prize for her word-of-mouth first volume of a septology, "On the Calculation of Volume I". French author from Réunion Gaëlle Bélem France’s Grand prix du roman métis for her debut novel "There’s a Monster Behind the Door".

The longest gap between original publication and translation is also represented with the English translation of Astrid Roemer’s Dutch queer literature classic "On a Woman’s Madness". First published in 1982, it has finally been translated into English by Lucy Scott.

This year’s International Booker Prize will announce its shortlist of six finalists on 8 April. All six finalists will each receive £5,000 (€6,000) to be split equally between writer and translator.

On 20 May, the winner will be revealed at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London. The winner will get £50,000 (€60,000), once again split between author and translator.

The full list of the nominees are as follows:

• "The Book of Disappearance" by Ibtisam Azem, translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon
• "On the Calculation of Volume I" by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland
• "There's a Monster Behind the Door" by Gaëlle Bélem, translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert
• "Solenoid" by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated from Romanian by Sean Cotter
• "Reservoir Bitches" by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated from Spanish by Heather Cleary and Julia Sanches
• "Small Boat" by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson
• "Hunchback" by Saou Ichikawa, translated from Japanese by Polly Barton
• "Under the Eye" of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda
• "Eurotrash" by Christian Kracht, translated from German by Daniel Bowles
• "Perfection" by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes
• "Heart Lamp" by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi
• "On a Woman's Madness" by Astrid Roemer, translated from Dutch by Lucy Scott
• "A Leopard-Skin Hat" by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson