A shortlist has been released for the International Booker Prize, honoring the "best novels and short story collections from around the globe that have been translated into English and published in the U.K. and/or Ireland." The winning book will be named May 21 in London, with the £50,000 (about $63,365) prize money divided equally between the author and translator. In addition, the shortlisted authors and translators each receive £2,500 (about $3,170). This year's shortlisted titles are:
Not a River by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott
Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell & Youngjae Josephine Bae
What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma, translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey
Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann
The Details by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson
Chair of the judges Eleanor Wachtel said: "Our shortlist, while implicitly optimistic, engages with current realities of racism and oppression, global violence and ecological disaster."
International Booker Prize administrator Fiammetta Rocco added: "The books cast a forensic eye on divided families and divided societies, revisiting pasts both recent and distant to help make sense of the present."
Six languages (Dutch, German, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish), six countries (Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, and Sweden) and three continents (Asia, Europe, and South America) are represented.
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Longlists have been released for the 2024 PEN America Literary Awards, which honor writers and translators with awards totaling more than $350,000. Including fiction, poetry, translation, and more, "these longlisted books are dynamic, diverse, and thought-provoking examples of literary excellence," PEN America noted. Finalists for all book awards will be revealed before the 2024 Literary Awards ceremony, which will be held April 29. The longlisted titles may be viewed here.