2021 International Booker Prize longlist announced
The shortlist will be revealed in April and the winner in June.
Chinese author Can Xue has made the International Booker Prize longlist for a second time.
The 2021 list features 13 books translated from 11 languages and originating from 12 countries across four continents.
Xue is recognised for her novel I Live In The Slums, which was translated by Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping.
Xue was previously longlisted in 2019 and is the only writer of the 2021 crop to have made the list before.
Also included is Russian writer Maria Stepanova for In Memory Of Memory, which was translated by Sasha Dugdale.
Nana Ekvtimishvili, from Georgia, makes the longlist with her novel The Pear Field, which was translated by Elizabeth Heighway.
Eric Vuillard, from France, is recognised for The War Of The Poor, translated by Mark Polizzotti.
Palestinian author Adania Shibli is longlisted for Minor Detail which was translated by Elisabeth Jaquette.
Among the other authors recognised are writers from Spain, Denmark and Germany.
The £50,000 prize for the International Booker is divided equally between the author and the translator.
The longlist was selected by the 2021 judging panel, which is chaired by novelist and cultural historian Lucy Hughes-Hallett.
She is joined on the panel by journalist Aida Edemariam, novelist Neel Mukherjee, academic Olivette Otele and poet George Szirtes.
Hughes-Hallett said of the longlisted books: “In a year when we could scarcely leave our own houses, we judges have been crossing continents, transported by our reading.
“Every book we’ve read is unique. However a theme does emerge – migration, the pain of it, but also the fruitful interconnectedness of the modern world.”
The shortlist for the prize will be announced on April 22 and the winner will be revealed on June 2 during a virtual event from Coventry, UK City of Culture 2021.
