The International Booker Prize is my favourite literary prize I like to follow. Every year I am excited to see the longlist and hope to be able to read it in its entirety. As I am in Australia, this is always a difficult task. When the longlist drops, I often scramble to see if my library has the books to reserve and every year I hope that I have read a large portion of the list to make things easier. This year is going to be a challenge, I do not own any of these books. I know I will not complete the entire longlist before the winner is announced, I create this post to make it easier for me to track my progress.
- Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi (translated by Jeremy Tiang)
- A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding by Amanda Svensson (translated by Nichola Smalley)
- Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel (translated by Rosalind Harvey)
- Pyre by Perumal Murugan (translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan)
- While We Were Dreaming by Clemens Meyer (translated by Katy Derbyshire)
- The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier (translated by Daniel Levin Becker)
- Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrey Kurkov (translated by Reuben Woolley)
- Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth (translated by Charlotte Barslund)
- Standing Heavy by GauZ’ (translated by Frank Wynne)
- Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov (translated by Angela Rodel)
- The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé (translated by Richard Philcox)
- Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan (translated by Chi-Young Kim)
- Boulder by Eva Baltasar (translated by Julia Sanches)
Hey Michael, I didn’t realise you were in Australia too. You are so right about the availability of these books. Readings is not as good as it was for international titles, too many Sad Girl novels and Misery Memoirs in their catalogue these days, alas.
I did have A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding (and I reviewed it) but, sorry, I sent it on its way to the Op Shop afterwards. Otherwise I could have sent it to you.
One of my libraries is not bad for translations, so I shall have a hunt around and see what I can find.
It makes it hard, I’m up in North Queensland so accessibility is always a challenge, but we do have a pretty decent indie bookshop. I placed an order via booktopia but I’ve wondered if ordering from Blackwell’s in the UK might be a better option.
Well, that was a fruitless search. I’ve searched Kingston and Bayside libraries and the only one they had was Time Shelter.
Which is the one I least want to read!
I think my library has Time Shelter too and it’s long overdue by whoever borrowed it last year