The Wandering Bibliophile

Last year, as you may recall, I let loose a rather impassioned rant about the Man Booker International Prize. Well, it appears that someone somewhere heard my cries. The Man Booker International Prize short list was announced today, and it is a thing of beauty. Of the 10 finalists, 8 are authors who write in languages other than English, and TWO of the authors (Couto and Aira) actually appeared as suggestions in my original angry post. (Coincidence? I think not!) So, I’m totally taking the credit for the fact that this year we have the pleasure of being introduced to more non-English writers, less familiar names, and I’m pleased that even the names I’m already familiar with aren’t really household names and are entirely deserving of a more global readership. Deep gratitude goes to the judges this year for saving a prize that I had almost given up on! Well done Marina Warner, Nadeem Aslam, Elleke Boehmer, Edwin Frank, and Wen-Chin Ouwang. You have redeemed the Man Booker International Prize, and brought English readers a treasure trove of new authors to explore. I look forward to reading books from each of the authors on this short list, and am actually excited for an award announcement for the first time in a very long time!

The Man Booker International prize short list, with some notes on what I’ve got on the shelf. I’m so excited to have new authors to discover!
• César Aira (Argentina) – My favourite (so far) is Varamo, but really, anything Aira writes is gold.

• Hoda Barakat (Lebanon)

• Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe)

• Mia Couto (Mozambique) – My favourite is The Last Flight of the Flamingo, and I’m looking forward to getting to The Tuner of SIlences.

• Amitav Ghosh (India) – The Sea of Poppies sits on my shelf, waiting for me to have time…

• Fanny Howe (US)

• Ibrahim Al-Koni (Libya)

• László Krasznahorkai (Hungary) – I’ve read bits of The Melancholy of Resistance and it is amazing, but then, I haven’t had the time to tackle Satantango yet, which I hear is a masterpiece…

• Alain Mabanckou (Democratic Republic of the Congo) – I’ve had Broken Glass on my TBR since 2010, but have yet to order it in. That makes it #1 on the pile.

• Marlene van Niekerk (South Africa)