This year’s longlist — which includes books from 11 languages and 12 countries—is dominated by writers and translators new to the prize, with only translator Megan McDowell and author Can Xue having been longlisted in previous years. And for the first time, the longlist includes a book translated by its author, The Perfect Nine: The Epic Gikuyu and Mumbi by Ngugi wa Thiong’o. This year the judges considered 125 books. Lucy Hughes-Hallett, chair of the judges, commented on the longlist, writing: “In a year when we could scarcely leave our own houses, we judges have been crossing continents, transported by our reading. Every book we’ve read is unique. However a theme does emerge — migration, the pain of it, but also the fruitful interconnectedness of the modern world. … Authors cross borders, and so do books, refusing to stay put in rigidly separated categories. We’ve read books that were like biographies, like myths, like essays, like meditations, like works of history — each one transformed into a work of fiction by the creative energy of the author’s imagination. Thanks to those remarkable books, and to their translators, we’ve been freed to explore the world. We hope this prize will inspire many more readers to follow us.” Read more here: https://t.co/yIqQYtX5Fw pic.twitter.com/m3PPh0HtjG — The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) March 30, 2021 The longlist was selected by a panel of five judges: cultural historian and novelist Lucy Hughes-Hallett; journalist and writer Aida Edemariam; Man Booker shortlisted novelist Neel Mukherjee; Professor of the History of Slavery Olivette Otele; and poet, translator, and biographer George Szirtes.
2021 International Booker Prize Longlist
I Live in the Slums by Can Xue, translated from Chinese by Karen Gernant & Chen Zeping At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop, translated from French by Anna Mocschovakis The Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili, translated from Georgian by Elizabeth Heighway The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez, translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut, translated from Spanish by Adrian Nathan West The Perfect Nine: The Epic Gikuyu and Mumbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, translated from Gikuyu by the author The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken Summer Brother by Jaap Robben, translated from Dutch by David Doherty An Inventory of Losses by Judith Schalansky, translated from German by Jackie Smith, Quercus Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, translated from Russian by Sasha Dugdale Wretchedness by Andrzej Tichý, translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley The War of the Poor by Éric Vuillard, translated from French by Mark Polizzotti, Pan Macmillan And if you’re looking for even more great recommendations for international literature, check out the novel that won the International Booker last year and last year’s complete longlist.
