Booker International Prize 2019 Shortlist Announced

The Man Booker International Prize 2019 Shortlist has been announced. (The prize, which is transitioning from sponsorship by the Man Group, is still named after its current sponsor.) The six shortlisted books have been translated from five languages, hail from five countries and three continents, and boast an all-female list of translators working with one male and five female authors. Olga Tokarczuk, who won the prize in 2018, appears again with her other translator into English, Antonia Lloyd-Jones. The shortlist is dominated by independent publishers, with five novels published by smaller publishing houses, including two submissions from last year’s winning publisher, England's Fitzcarraldo Editions. The £50,000 prize for the winning book will be divided equally between its author and translator upon selection of a winner.

The 2019 shortlist is as follows:

• Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (Oman) and translated from the Arabic by Marilyn Booth (Sandstone Press) 
• The Years by Annie Ernaux (France) and translated from the French by Alison L. Strayer (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
• The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann (Germany) and translated from the German by Jen Calleja (Profile Books, Serpent's Tail)
• Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) and translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Fitzcarraldo Editions) 
• The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia) and translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean (MacLehose Press, Quercus)
• The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán (Chile) and translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes (And Other Stories)