Month: February 2020

The 2020 International Booker Longlist

Posted February 27, 2020 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literary Prizes / 0 Comments

  • The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (translated by Michele Hutchison)
  • The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili (translated by Charlotte Collins & Ruth Martin)
  • The Enlightenment of The Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar (translated by Anonymous)
  • The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (translated by Stephen Snyder)
  • The Other Name: Septology I – II by Jon Fosse (translated by Damion Searls)
  • Tyll byDaniel Kehlmann (translated by Ross Benjamin)
  • Faces on the Tip of My Tongue by Emmanuelle Pagano (translated by Sophie Lewis & Jennifer Higgins)
  • Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor (translated by Sophie Hughes)
  • Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin (translated by Megan McDowell)
  • Mac and His Problem by Enrique Vila-Matas (translated by Margaret Jull Costa & Sophie Hughes)
  • Red Dog by Willem Anker (translated by Michiel Heyns)
  • Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq (translated by Shaun Whiteside)
  • The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (translated by Fiona Mackintosh & Iona Macintyre)

International Booker 2020 Predictions

Posted February 24, 2020 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 10 Comments

The International Booker longlist is about to be revealed in the next few days. As most people know, this is probably the main prize I follow. I want to pay attention to the Best Translated Book Award (BTBA), Warwick Prize for Women in Translation or National Book Award for Translated Literature, but it is the Booker that is the most accessible here in Australia. Plus, there is the added bonus of having people from all around the world talking about these books.

I often find it challenging to predict the books that will end up on the longlist, but this year feels particularly more difficult. I am not sure what to expect, and the books have not been major standouts. I do think Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming by László Krasznahorkai (translated by Ottilie Mulzet) will be longlisted but purely on the fact that Krasznahorkai always turns up on the list. I don’t have a great relationship with László Krasznahorkai but I have started Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming trying to get it out of the way as soon as possible.

If the judges are going for popularity, then The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa (translated by Stephen Synder) will be on the longlist. I am a fan of Ogawa and pleased that this book got so much attention, but this is not a favourite of mine. After those two books, it really is a struggle to pick what will be longlisted. Possibly Love by Hanne Ørstavik (translated by Martin Aitken), it was released in the US last year, but the UK release would be eligible for the prize.

The judging panel for this year’s International Booker Prize is pretty amazing. The judges are Lucie Campos, Jennifer Croft, Valeria Luiselli and Jeet Thayil, with Ted Hodgkinson chairing the panel. If I made an assumption of the longlist based on the judges, I will expect that this will be a European/South American heavy list, more so than normal.

Here are the books I am predicting (watch me be very wrong)

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