International Booker Prize reveals nominees for 2021 edition
The prize list consists of “I Live in the Slums”, by Chinese Can Xue, “At Night All Blood is Black”, by Franco-Senegalese Davip Diop, “The Pear Field”, by Georgian Nana Ekvtimishvili, “The Dangers of Smoking in Bed“, by Argentine Mariana Enríquez, “When We Cease to Understand the World”, by Chilean Benjamín Labatut, and “The Perfect Nine: The Epic Gikuyu and Mumbi”, by Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who is the first author in the history of the award to translate the work itself.
Also named “The Employees”, by the Danish Olga Ravn, “Summer Brother”, by the Dutchman Jaap Robben, “An Inventory of Losses”, by the German Judith Schalansky, “Minor Detail”, by the Palestinian Adania Shibli, “In Memory of Memory”, by Russian Maria Stepanova, “Wretchedness“, by Czech-Polish Andrzej Tichý, and “The War of the Poor”, by French Éric Vuillard.
This year’s Booker International nominees were chosen by a panel composed by historian Lucy Hughes-Hallett, who chaired, by journalist Aida Edemariam, writer Neel Mukherjee, professor of Slavery History Olivette Otele and poet and translator George Szirtes.
The finalists of the award will be announced on April 22nd and the winning book will be revealed on June 2nd, in a virtual ceremony.
The £50,000 (€58,000) prize is distributed by the author and the translator of the work.
