The Shortlist of the year 2014
The shortlist for 2014 was announced on May 27. The jury explained their decision as follows:
“A parody of an advice book, a meandering long poem, an autobiography broken into fragments, yet integrating myth: unlike the classical novel, these are examples of how today’s writers approach respective realities. The six books shortlisted for the International Literature Award in 2014 show the broad formal spectrum of current narrative literatures around the world. Each on of them, in its own respective way, reveals the powers against which people on all continents have to stand up against in today’s world. For these experiences, the translators of these works have found an unmistakable sound. Again and again, these existential explorations, sometimes sarcastic or mournful, but then again full of exuberant self-confidence, revolve around the question of dignity. For all these writers, narrative proves to be a place from which the world can be understood, ordered, and reassembled: their own world and perhaps the world of the other as well. For example, that of the reader.”
The following authors and translators were nominated in 2014 (in alphabetic order of the name of the author):
Zsófia Bán: Als nur die Tiere lebten
Suhrkamp Verlag 2014, translated from the Hungarian by Terézia Mora
(Amikor még csak az állatok éltek, Magvető/Budapest 2012)
More about the book, author, translator and jury decision...
Georgi Gospodinov: Physik der Schwermut
Literaturverlag Droschl 2014, translated from the Bulgarian by Alexander Sitzmann
(Fizika na tagata, Janet 45/Plovdiv 2012)
More about the book, author, translator and jury decision...
Mohsin Hamid: So wirst du stinkreich im boomenden Asien
DuMont Buchverlag 2013, translated from the English by Eike Schönfeld
(How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Riverhead Books/New York 2013)
More about the book, author, translator and jury decision...
Bernardo Kucinski: K. oder Die verschwundene Tochter
Transit Buchverlag 2013, translated from the Portuguese by Sarita Brandt
(K., Expressão Popular/São Paulo 2012)
More about the book, author, translator and jury decision...
Dany Laferrière: Das Rätsel der Rückkehr
Verlag das Wunderhorn 2013, translated from the French by Beate Thill
(L'énigme du retour; Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, Paris 2009 & Les Éditions du Boréal/Montréal 2009
More about the book, author, translator and jury decision...
Dany Laferrière and Beate Thill are the 2014 award winners.
Madeleine Thien: Flüchtige Seelen
Luchterhand Literaturverlag 2014, translated from the English by Almuth Carstens
(Dogs at the Perimeter, McClelland & Stewart/Toronto 2011)
More about the book, author, translator and jury decision...
