International Booker Prize 2024: Read the opening passages of the six shortlisted novels

The 2024 International Booker Prize shortlist was announced on April 9. The winning author-translator duo will be awarded a cash prize of £50,000 to be equally shared at a ceremony in London on May 21. There is also a prize of £5,000 for each of the shortlisted titles, to be shared jointly between the author and the translator(s).

The jury is chaired by writer Eleanor Wachtel and comprises Natalie Diaz, novelist Romesh Gunesekera, visual artist William Kentridge, and translator Aaron Robertson. Wachtel said the shortlist “while implicitly optimistic, engages with current realities of racism and oppression, global violence and ecological disaster.”

In this year’s shortlist, six languages (Dutch, German, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish), six countries (Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea and Sweden) and three continents (Asia, Europe and South America) are represented. Among the authors and translators, nine women and four men are shortlisted. South Korea is represented for the third year running and Argentina for the fourth time in five years. Itamar Viera Junior is shortlisted for his debut novel and Hwang Sok-yong is shortlisted for his ninth book translated into English. Previously longlisted authors Hwang and Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Sora Kim-Russell have made it to the shortlist for...

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