ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

(From the press release….)

The 2018 shortlist
Author (country/territory), Translator, Title (imprint) 
•    Virginie Despentes (France), Frank Wynne, Vernon Subutex 1 (MacLehose Press)
•    Han Kang (South Korea), Deborah Smith, The White Book (Portobello Books)
•    László Krasznahorkai (Hungary), John Batki, Ottilie Mulzet & George Szirtes, The World Goes On (Tuskar Rock Press)
•    Antonio Muñoz Molina (Spain), Camilo A. Ramirez, Like a Fading Shadow (Tuskar Rock Press), (I’ll be getting hold of this one, Molina’s In the Night of Time was brilliant.)
•    Ahmed Saadawi (Iraq), Jonathan Wright, Frankenstein in Baghdad (Oneworld), see my review
•    Olga Tokarczuk (Poland), Jennifer Croft, Flights (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

The settings range from the rock music scene in Paris, to the streets of Baghdad where a monster roams wild, to James Earl Ray’s short stay in Lisbon fleeing law enforcement; two novels span the globe, one charting Chopin’s heart making a covert voyage from Paris to Warsaw, and one featuring men on the edge of despair in Kiev, Varanasi and Shanghai; with one novel being a meditation on the colour white and an investigation of mourning and rebirth.

The winner of the 2018 prize will be announced on 22 May at a formal dinner at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, with the £50,000 prize being divided equally between the author and the translator of the winning book.