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The Man Booker International Prize Longlist is here!

We are getting extraordinarily spoiled for book awards around here lately, dear readers!  Today, we present the Man Booker International Prize Longlist, celebrating the best books not originally written in English, and the people who translate them so beautifully.

Every culture, and every language, has its own literary traditions.   The English language tradition has Shakespeare, Milton, Dickens, Austen–all the names that we learned about in school, and whose skill shaped, and continue to shape, the books we read today.

But now, imagine growing up in a world where those authors….weren’t the ones you grew up reading.  A world where you had other authors–other traditions–other phrases that called up your emotions.

It’s really hard to do.  But that is what makes books not written in English so incredible.  They are based in different cultures, different linguistic structures, different overall world experiences.  And I don’t know if there is a more intimate way to experience a different culture than to read its literature.

Better yet, the Man Booker Prize celebrates translations, as well.  If writing a book is a difficult process, translating that book is another matter entirely.  The ability to interpret not only an author’s words, but his or her intentions is a rare one.  To be able to keep one foot in the original language and one in the new is a balancing act that few can pull off with grace.  Vladimir Nabokov explained the complicated art of a translator far better than I ever could, in an article he wrote for the New Republic in 1941:

We can deduce now the requirements that a translator must possess in order to be able to give an ideal version of a foreign masterpiece. First of all he must have as much talent, or at least the same kind of talent, as the author he chooses…Second, he must know thoroughly the two nations and the two languages involved and be perfectly acquainted with all details relating to his author’s manner and methods; also, with the social background of words, their fashions, history and period associations. This leads to the third point: while having genius and knowledge he must possess the gift of mimicry and be able to act, as it were, the real author’s part by impersonating his tricks of demeanor and speech, his ways and his mind, with the utmost degree of verisimilitude.

So while we celebrate these remarkable books, let’s not forget the remarkable translators who made it possible for us to read them in English.  And be sure to check out these longlisted books soon!*

*Note: The full longlist can be found here.  Because so many books have not yet been released in the US, only the available ones are provided below.

We’ll be back with more information when the shortlist is produced in April!  Until then, dear readers–enjoy!