The International Booker Prize: 13 books for a Year!

I have never been a huge fan of Booker Prizes: the judgments are hard to understand as an outsider to the publishing industry, and the list are filled of authors that I have never heard before, and that I would not choose for myself. However, this year something struck me while reading the Long List for the International Booker Prize. 

Perhaps it was high density of female writers,  the numerous queer stories or the themes of horror, fear and abandonment, but I found myself intrigued by multiple titles. And so I decided: I will read the entire International Booker Prize Long List.

I am writing this post as I have already started, I have recently completed "Tawain Travelogue" by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated into English by Lin King and "We are green and trembling" by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, and translated by Robin Myers. And what a journey has it been! A rollercoaster of disappointments ( I will talk in another post deeper about my feelings on "We are green and trembling"👀) and amazing discoveries!

I am usually not the type to jump on new releases. I tend to be left behind on trends ( probably due to my lack of presence on social media) and I tend to read "new publications" with a delay of 4 years. So this is absolutely outside of my comfort zone! Most of these titles are a true challenge to acquire outside of the USA or UK!

But I am having fun and it has been giving me strong motivation to, not only think critically of every page, but also to focus on my reading goals! 

Here I write the long list, which I will update with a tick ✅ for each new book achieved, hopefully I will be done by the end of the year! I usually do not DNF books, but in case I will do so with some of the following titles I will indicated it with a red cross ❌:

• “The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran,” by Shida Bazyar; translated from German by Ruth Martin
• “We Are Green and Trembling,” by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara; translated from Spanish by Robin Myers --> ✅
• “The Remembered Soldier,” by Anjet Daanje; translated from Dutch by David McKay
• “The Deserters,” by Mathias Énard; translated from French by Charlotte Mandell ✅
• “Small Comfort,” by Ia Genberg; translated from Swedish by Kira Josefsson
• “She Who Remains,” by Rene Karabash; translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel
• “The Director” by Daniel Kehlmann; translated from German by Ross Benjamin
• “On Earth As It Is Beneath,” by Ana Paula Maia; translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan
• “The Duke,” by Matteo Melchiorre; translated from Italian by Antonella Lettieri
• “The Witch,” by Marie NDiaye; translated from French by Jordan Stump
• “Women Without Men,” by Shahrnush Parsipur; translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh
• “The Wax Child,” by Olga Ravn; translated from Danish by Martin Aitkez
• “Taiwan Travelogue,” by Yang Shuang-zi; translated from Mandarin by Lin King --> ✅