The International Booker Prize 2022 - shortlist
THE shortlist for the International Booker Prize 2022 has been announced. So we’ve put together a round-up of the six titles included.
The shortlist includes five women authors and one man. Some coverage has focused on women ‘dominating the list’, and it’s certainly good to see such international representation of women writers.
The six titles shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2022
International Booker Prize 2022 - shortlist
The Books of Jacob, by Olga Tokarczuk (translated by Jennifer Croft)
The Books of Jacob
Description: In the mid-eighteenth century, as new ideas begin to sweep the continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland.
Before long, he has changed not only his name but his persona; visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a charismatic spell that attracts an increasingly fervent following.
In the decade to come, Frank will traverse the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires, throngs of disciples in his thrall as he reinvents himself again and again, converts to Islam and then Catholicism, is pilloried as a heretic and revered as the Messiah, and wreaks havoc on the conventional order…
Author: Olga Tokarczuk is a Polish writer and activist, and winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of the highest-regarded Polish writers of her generation, in 2020 she was made an Honourary Citizen of Warsaw.
Heaven, by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd)
Heaven
Description: In Heaven, a fourteen-year-old boy is tormented for having a lazy eye.
Instead of resisting, he chooses to suffer in silence. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate, Kojima, who experiences similar treatment at the hands of her bullies.
Providing each other with immeasurable consolation at a time in their lives when they need it most, the two young friends grow closer than ever…
Author: Mieko Kawakami is a Japanese writer and poet, and author of the international best-seller Breast and Eggs, one of TIME’s Best 10 Books of 2020.
Elena Knows, by Claudia Pineiro (translated by Frances Riddle)
Elena Knows
Description: After Rita is found dead in a church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation…
Author: Claudia Pineiro is a best-selling Argentine novelist and screenwriter. Five of her novels have been translated into English, as well as adapted into films.
A New Name: Septology VI-VII, by Jon Fosse (translated by Damion Searls)
A New Name: Septologoy VI- VII
Description: Asle is an ageing painter and widower who lives alone on the southwest coast of Norway.
In nearby Bjorgvin another Asle, also a painter, is lying in the hospital, consumed by alcoholism.
Asle and Asle are doppelgangers - two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life, both grappling with existential questions.
In this final instalment of Jon Fosse's Septology , the major prose work by 'the Beckett of the twenty-first century' ( Le Monde ), we follow the lives of the two Asles as younger adults in flashbacks…
Author: Jon Fosse is a Norweigian author and dramatist, whose previous awards include the 2014 European Prize for Literature and the 2015 Nordic Council Literature Prize
Cursed Bunny, by Bora Chung (translated by Anton Hur)
Cursed Bunny
Description: Cursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung.
Blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science-fiction, Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society…
Author: Bora Chung is a Korean writer, and author of three novels and three short story collections.
Tomb of Sand, by Geetanjali Shree (translated by Daisy Rockwell
Tomb of Sand
Description: In northern India, an eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life.
Her determination to fly in the face of convention – including striking up a friendship with a hijra person – confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more 'modern' of the two…
Author: Geetanjali Shree is a Hindi novelist and short-story writer. Her novel Mai was shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award in 2001.
A bit more info about the prize
The winner of the International Booker Prize 2022 will be announced on May 26th, and the winning title will see both author and translator(s) take prize money - given that faithful translations are a feat of their own.
The winning sum, divided between author and translator(s) is £50,000. Each shortlisted author and translator receives £2,500
We look forward to seeing who takes the main prize, but each of the listed titles may offer something completely new to anyone looking to break out of a reading comfort zone.
Of course, should you want to check out any (or all) of these, we’ve set up our The International Booker Prize 2022 book list for you, for easy purchase from a local independent bookshop.
Alternatively, you can check out the longlist of titles that were nominated here.
Elsewhere today, tickets for the Hay Festival 2022 opened for general sale. That means you can start looking at in-person or online events you want to catch!