Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

I don't have a good excuse for why it's taken me so long to post about this, but better late than never, right? As reported at TheBookseller.com, the Arts Council England has announced the longlist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The £10,000 prize (£5,000 for the author and £5,000 for the translator) celebrates a work of fiction by a living author, which has been translated into English and published in the UK in the last year. Out of 126 contenders, 16 titles made it onto the longlist. The 6-title shortlist will be announced on April 1st, and the winner will be revealed on May 14th. I like the fact that the prize money is split equally between the author and the translator. Generally, translators get short shrift, so this is a nice change.

Here's the longlist:

• My Father's Wives by Jose Eduardo Agualusa, translated by Daniel Hahn from the Portuguese (Arcadia Books)
• The Director by Alexander Ahndoril, translated by Sarah Death from the Swedish (Portobello Books)
• Voiceover by Celine Curiol, translated by Sam Richard from the French (Faber) (available in the U.S. here)
• The White King by Gyorgy Dragoman, translated by Paul Olchvary from the Hungarian (Doubleday) (available in the U.S. here)
• Night Work by Thomas Glavinic translated by John Brownjohn from the German (Canongate) (available in the U.S. here)
• Beijing Coma by Ma Jian, translated by Flora Drew from the Chinese (Chatto) (available in the U.S. here)
• The Siege by Ismail Kadare, translated by David Bellos from the Albanian (Canongate) (available in the U.S. here)
• Homesick by Eshkol Nevo, translated by Sondra Silverston from the Hebrew (Chatto) (almost available in the U.S. here)
• The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder from the Japanese (Harvill Secker) (available in the U.S. here)
• The Armies by Evelio Rosero, translated by Anne McLean from the Spanish (Maclehose Press)
• The Blue Fox by Sjon, translated by Victoria Cribb from the Icelandish (Telegram) (available in the U.S. here)
• Novel 11, Book 18 by Dag Solstad, translated by Sverre Lyngstad from the Norwegian (Harvill Secker)
• How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone by Sasa Stanisic, translated by Anthea Bell from the German, (Weidenfeld) (almost available in the U.S. here)
• A Blessed Child by Linn Ullmann, translated by Sarah Death from the Norwegian (Picador) (available in the U.S. here)
• The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vasquez, translated by Anne McLean from the Spanish (Bloomsbury) (almost available in the U.S. here)
• Friendly Fire by A B Yehoshua, translated by Stuart Schoffman from the Hebrew (Halban) (available in the U.S. here)