Ever wonder who’s translating your favorite foreign books? The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, now in its 25th year, acknowledges book translators and book authors. Booktrust announced the prize’s longlist, which includes longlist alumni Murakami and Knausgaard and three debut authors: Stephanie de Velasco (Tiger Milk), Timur Vermes (Look Who’s Back), and Jung-Myung Lee (The Investigation). The £10,000 prize is split evenly between author and translator.
The longlist:
The Ravens by Tomas Bannerhed translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death
The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky
Bloodlines by Marcello Fois translated from the Italian by Silvester Mazzarella
In the Beginning Was the Sea by Tomás González translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne
The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov translated from the Russian by Andrew Bromfield
F by Daniel Kehlmann translated from the German by Carol Brown Janeway
Boyhood Island by Karl Ove Knausgaard translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett
By Night the Mountain Burns by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel translated from the Spanish by Jethro Soutar
The Investigation by Jung-Myung Lee translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim
While the Gods Were Sleeping by Erwin Mortier translated from the Dutch by Paul Vincent
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel
The Giraffe’s Neck by Judith Schalansky translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside
Tiger Milk by Stefanie de Velasco translated from the German by Tim Mohr
Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch
The Last Lover by Can Xue translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen