Women create cover page story for Man Booker International Prize

London, April 10: This year’s Man Booker International Prize shortlist has five women from around the world. The Man Booker International Prize announced on Tuesday 9 April, revealed the shortlist of the six books in contention for the 2019 prize, which celebrates the finest works of translated fiction from around the world. The £50,000 prize for the winning book will be divided equally between its author and translator. The announcement was made at an event at Somerset House.

The list includes Olga Tokarczuk, who won the prize in 2018 for Flights, with her other translator into English, Antonia Lloyd-Jones; Jokha Alharthi, the first writer from the Arabian Gulf to be longlisted for the prize, alongside Marilyn Booth; and Alia Trabucco Zerán, who makes the list with her debut novel translated by Sophie Hughes. The list also includes The Years by Annie Ernaux and translated by Alison L. Strayer, which has already won prizes including Prix Renaudot in France and Premio Strega in Italy.

The shortlist was selected by a panel of five judges, chaired by Bettany Hughes, an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster, and is made up of a writer, translator and chair of English PEN Maureen Freely; philosopher Professor Angie Hobbs; novelist and satirist Elnathan John and essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra.

This year’s stories include the pilgrimage of a lecturer on beard fashions over the pine islands of Matsushima, a tale of Colombian conspiracy theories, and an environmental whodunnit with a cast of eccentric characters.

Family connections and history are also present in the coming-of-age account of three Omani sisters, the story of three children of ex-militants overcoming Chile’s complex past, and an evocative narrative of France from 1941 to 2006 which blends the personal and the collective to present memories of a generation.

The Man Booker International Prize is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize was announced in June 2004 sponsored by the Man Group.