#InternationalBooker2023: the longlist

For ten years now I’ve been part of the Shadow Panel reading along with the International Booker Prize (and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize before it). Over that time, my reading horizons have broadened considerably, and the Shadow Panel played a key part in that. I always look forward to this time of year.

The 2023 longlist was announced on Tuesday, and here it is:

• Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang (Honford Star)
• A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding by Amanda Svensson, translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley (Scribe UK)
• Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
• Pyre by Perumal Murugan, translated from Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan (Pushkin Press)
• While We Were Dreaming by Clemens Meyer, translated from German by Katy Derbyshire (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
• The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier, translated from French by Daniel Levin Becker (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
• Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrey Kurkov, translated from Russian by Reuben Woolley (MacLehose Press)
• Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth, translated from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund (Verso)
• Standing Heavy by GauZ’, translated from French by Frank Wynne (MacLehose Press)
• Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé, translated from French by Richard Philcox (World Editions)
• Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim (Europa Editions)
• Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated from Catalan by Julia Sanches (And Other Stories)

So far, I’ve only read two of them (both striking pieces of work, in very different ways), so there is a lot to get through in the weeks ahead. I will try my best to read and review as much as I can, because I am intrigued by this list.