Thirteen books have made the longlist for the 2020 Booker International Prize, which honors novels and short story collections translated into English and published in the U.K. and Ireland. A shortlist of six titles will be announced on April 2 at an event at Ennismore Sessions House in London. The £50,000 prize is split between the author and translator of the winning book equally, and each shortlisted author and translator will also receive £1,000.
This year's longlist includes four books from Spanish, two each from French and German, and one each from Afrikaans, Dutch, Farsi, Japanese, and Norwegian. Several bestselling authors made the list, including France's Michel Houellebecq and Germany's Daniel Kehlmann. Argentina's Samanta Schweblin has been nominated for the third time, while The Discomfort of Evening by Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has yet to be published.
The longlist was selected by a panel of five judges, chaired by Ted Hodgkinson, head of literature and spoken word at Southbank Centre. The panel also includes: Lucie Campos, director of the Villa Gillet, France's centre for international writing; Man Booker International Prize–winning translator and writer Jennifer Croft; LA Times Book Prize for Fiction–winning author Valeria Luiselli; and writer, poet, and musician Jeet Thayil, whose novel Narcopolis was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2012.
The full longlist is as follows:
- Red Dog by Willem Anker, translated by Michiel Heyns from Afrikaans (Pushkin Press)
- The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated by Anonymous from Farsi (Europa Editions)
- The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Iona Macintyre and Fiona Mackintosh from Spanish (Charco Press)
- The Other Name: Septology I-II by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls from Norwegian (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
- The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili, translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin from German (Scribe UK)
- Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq, translated by Shaun Whiteside from French (William Heinemann)
- Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin from German (Quercus)
- Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes from Spanish (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
- The Memory Police by Yoko Ogowa, translated by Stephen Snyder from Japanese (Harvill Secker)
- Faces on the Tip of My Tongue by Emmanuelle Pagano, translated by Sophie Lewis and Jennifer Higgins from French (Peirene Press)
- Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell from Spanish (Oneworld)
- The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchison from Dutch (Faber & Faber)
- Mac and His Problem by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Sophie Hughes from Spanish (Harvill Secker)