This past week saw the release of the International Booker Prize 2024 Longlist. Notable this year was the four books written by South American authors, with books representing Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Venezuela.
International Booker Prize 2024
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The International Booker Prize seeks to honor the best novels and short story collections in translation published in the UK and/or Ireland every year. This year’s longlist was selected from books published between May 1, 2023 and April 30, 2024
For 2024 the judging panel is chaired by writer and broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel. She is joined by artist William Kentridge, author Romesh Gunesekera, poet Natalie Diaz and writer Aaron Robertson.
The 2024 longlist features books translated from ten original languages: Albanian, Dutch, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish including four books written by South American authors, with books representing Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Venezuela.
Italian writer Domenico Starnone – rumored to be the “real” author behind the pen name Elena Ferrante, something he has strongly denied – is also longlisted for the prize with his book The House on Via Gemito, translated by Oonagh Stransky.
Should he win, Ismail Kadare would become the first author to win the International Booker Prize twice. He was the winner of the inaugural award (then known as the Man Booker International Prize) in 2005. At the time, the prize was awarded for a body of work rather than an individual book. Kadare was longlisted for the current version of the prize in 2017, for The Traitor’s Niche.
Mater 2-10, At Dusk was translated by Sora Kim-Russell, one of four translators on the 2024 longlist list previously nominated for the prize. The others are Julia Sanches, shortlisted in 2023 for her translation of Eva Baltasar’s Boulder, John Hodgson, longlisted in 2017 for his translation of Kadare’s The Traitor’s Niche, and Daniel Hahn, shortlisted in 2016 for his translation of A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa. Hahn was also a judge for the 2017 prize. Michael Hofmann, longlisted this year for his translation of Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, was a judge in 2018.
The Longlist
A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare (Albania) . Translated by John Hodgson
The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov (Ukraine). Translated by Boris Dralyuk
What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma (Holland). Translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey
Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo (Italy). Translated by Leah Janeczko
The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone (Italy). Translated by Oonagh Stransky
Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior (Brazil). Translated by Johnny Lorenz
Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener (Peru). Translated by Julia Sanches
Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong (South Korea). Translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
Not a River by Selva Almada (Argentina). Translated by Annie McDermott
Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón (Venezuela). Translated by Noel Hernández González and Daniel Hahn
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany). Translated by Michael Hofmann
The Details by Ia Genberg (Sweden), translated by Kira Josefsson
White Nights by Urszula Honek (Poland), translated by Kate Webster
This year’s shortlist will be announced on April 9th, and the winner will be revealed at a ceremony on May 21. The winning author and translator will split a prize of £50,000. In addition, 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).
Previous winners of the prize include Ismael Kadare, Han Kang and Olga Tokarczuk. Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel won the 2023 prize.
If you enjoyed our review of the International Booker Prize 2024 longlist, check out last year’s International Booker Prize
