The 2023 International Booker Prize Shortlist!

Whenever the longlist for the International Booker Prize is announced, there’s a lot of excitement, and often a fair bit of bewilderment, too, as we examine the books the judges have chosen, many of which might be relatively (or completely) unknown.  These first few weeks, then, can be a little hectic as we attempt to make sense of the choices and find an angle on what this year’s judges are thinking.

If I’m honest, though, it’s usually the shortlist that provides a real insight into the judges’ minds, as by this point the vanity picks have fallen by the wayside, and only the books that have the support of several judges are still standing.  So, what does this year’s final half-dozen say about the class of 2023 (both the books and the judges)?  Let’s find out…

*****

Eva Baltasar (Spain) & Julia Sanches
– Boulder (And Other Stories)

Cheon Myeong-kwan (South Korea) & Chi-Young Kim
– Whale (Europa Editions)

Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe) & Richard Philcox
– The Gospel According to the New World (World Editions)

GauZ’ (Côte d’Ivoire) & Frank Wynne
– Standing Heavy (MacLehose Press)

Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria) & Angela Rodel
– Time Shelter (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Guadalupe Nettel (Mexico) & Rosalind Harvey
– Still Born (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

*****
I watched the announcement on the livestream, and I can inform you that the commenters there were largely bemused by the announcement.  Certainly, there was a fair bit of surprise at the inclusion of Standing Heavy and The Gospel According to the New World, and if this was the judges’ opportunity to make up for a mediocre longlist by trimming the fat effectively, well, I don’t think they took it…

Personally speaking, I’m gutted that Clemens Meyer’s excellent While We Were Dreaming (translated by Katy Derbyshire) didn’t make the final six, and if I had had to choose one of the other Fitzcarraldo books to progress, I probably would have bet big money on Laurent Mauvignier’s The Birthday Party (tr. Daniel Levin Becker) – which is nothing against Still Born, which I also enjoyed.  Perhaps a bigger surprise is the omission of Vigdis Hjorth’s Is Mother Dead (tr. Charlotte Barslund), a book I was convinced would be first name on the sheet for the shortlist.

The six books left standing come from six different presses (which is nice), and there’s a rather international feel to the shortlist.  There’s also a gender balance, with three of the books by women making it through.  I’m a little surprised by the inclusion of both Boulder and Still Born as I suspect I wasn’t the only one that thought it would be a straight shootout between the two.  Unfortunately, that means that other books miss out, and if I’m honest, I can’t say I’m overly impressed with the end result.

Still, just like the Avengers, we on the Shadow Panel have the chance to do things over, and our own, different shortlist will be announced in two week’s time, namely on Tuesday, the 2nd of May.  In the meantime, look out for the last few reviews from the longlist on the blog, and see if you can guess what the Shadow Shortlist might look like 🙂