Man Booker International Prize Names 2019 Shortlist

The Man Booker International Prize named its six-title shortlist, narrowed down from last month’s 13-title longlist.

Honoring the best translated fiction from around the world, the prize awards £50,000 to be split evenly between authors and translators. Like the longlist, the shortlist is dominated by women and independent publishers. Five of the six nominees are women including Olga Tokarczuck, who won the 2018 prize, and her translator, Antonia Lloyd-Jones. The list also includes novels in five different languages: Arabic, French, German, Polish, and Spanish.

Here’s the 2019 Man Booker International shortlist with bonus links where applicable:

• Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth
• The Years by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison Strayer (Subject of this essay by Arthur Willemse)
• The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann, translated by Jen Calleja
• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Tokarczuk won last year’s prize for Flights)
• The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated by Anne McLean (Featured in our September Preview)
• The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zeran, translated by Sophie Hughes

The Man Booker International winner will be announced on May 21.