This £10,000 prize will be awarded in May by Arts Council England (with Champagne Tattinger). Here, as listed on The Bookseller, are the longlisted books, whose English translations each published in the UK in 2008. The shortlist will be announced on April 1, 2009.
- My Father’s Wives by Jose Eduardo Agualusa, translated by Daniel Hahn from the Portuguese (Arcadia)
- The Director by Alexander Ahndoril, translated by Sarah Death from the Swedish (Portobello)
- Voice Over by Celine Curiol, translated by Sam Richard from the French (Faber)
- The White King by Gyorgy Dragoman, translated by Paul Olchvary from the Hungarian (Doubleday)
- Night Work by Thomas Glavinic translated by John Brownjohn from the German (Canongate)
- Beijing Coma by Ma Jian, translated by Flora Drew from the Chinese (Chatto)
- The Siege by Ismail Kadare, translated by David Bellos from the Albanian (Canongate)
- Homesick by Eshkol Nevo, translated by Sondra Silverston from the Hebrew (Chatto)
- The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder from the Japanese (Harvill Secker)
- The Armies by Evelio Rosero, translated by Anne McLean from the Spanish (Maclehose)
- The Blue Fox by Sjon, translated by Victoria Cribb from the Icelandish (Telegram)
- Novel 11, Book 18 by Dag Solstad, translated by Sverre Lyngstad from the Norwegian (Harvill Secker)
- How the Soldier Repairs the Gramaphone by Sasa Stanisic, translated by Anthea Bell from the German, (Weidenfeld)
- A Blessed Child by Linn Ullmann, translated by Sarah Death from the Norwegian (Picador)
- The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vasquez, translated by Anne McLean from the Spanish (Bloomsbury)
- Friendly Fire by A.B. Yehoshua, translated by Stuart Schoffman from the Hebrew (Halba)
I’d love to see some of these books reviewed on FWR over the next few months, so let me know if you’re interested in reading and writing about one; we already have a copy of Curiol’s critically acclaimed Voice Over (the U.S. edition, from Seven Stories Press) on hand…
