At the same time the Bailey’s Women Fiction list is announced, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize too has published their longlist. As you know, I am a keen reader of fiction but alas it is difficult to get hold of some these books in the local library.
The good news is that I have read 2 Japanese novels in the list (strikethroughs) and have another two in my bag (in amber).
The full longlist of 15 titles is below:
- A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgaard and translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett (Harvill Secker)
- A Meal in Winter by Hubert Mingarelli and translated from the French by Sam Taylor (Portobello Books)
- Back to Back by Julia Franck and translated from the German by Anthea Bell (Harvill Secker)
- Brief Loves that Live Forever by Andreï Makine and translated from the French by Geoffrey Strachan (MacLehose Press)
- Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir and translated from the Icelandic by Brian FitzGibbon (Pushkin Press)
- The Corpse Washer by Sinan Antoon and translated from the Arabic by the author (Yale University Press)
- The Dark Road by Ma Jian and translated from the Chinese by Flora Drew (Chatto & Windus)
- Exposure by Sayed Kashua and translated from the Hebrew by Mitch Ginsberg (Chatto & Windus?
- The Infatuations by Javier Marías and translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Hamish Hamilton)
- The Iraqi Christ by Hassan Blasim and translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright
- (Comma Press)
- The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke and translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch (Peirene Press)
Revenge by Yoko Ogawa and translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder (Harvill Secker)- The Sorrow of Angels by Jón Kalman Stefánsson and translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton (MacLehose Press)
Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami and translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell (Portobello Books)- Ten by Andrej Longo and translated from the Italian by Howard Curtis (Harvill Secker)
It will be interesting to see how the list gets narrow down. To follow week by week reading leading up to the announcement of the winner, I have two faithful followers of IFFP and a shadow jury at work to help you decide what to read on this acclaimed list of translated fiction.
JoV's Book Pyramid 
Aren’t we smart to have already read two Japanese titles from this list? 😉 I just finished The Dark Road last night, and I can’t stop thinking about it. It was upsetting, but necessary, to read. Began Back to Back right after closing the cover of The Dark Road because I needed to think about something else, and then I was so sad that I had to go to sleep for work the next morning. (Today.)
Thanks for the post, and also for telling me about the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. I doubt I can read it concurrently with the IFFP, but I can at least refer to it for the next books to ‘attack’. xo
Posted by Bellezza | March 17, 2014, 2:48 pmBellezza,
I don’t know how you are going to attack the two prizes at one go. It is humanly impossible but I’ll be following up on your blog for IFFPs. I secure The Dark Road on hand after reading your review post today. I like to read disturbing stuff… so this may be my cup of tea! LOL 😀
Posted by JoV | March 17, 2014, 3:51 pmI can’t “attack’ two prizes at one go. The Bailey’s Women’s prize will have to come much later, perhaps even in Summer, but regardless of when I’m glad to know of the list. Thanks!
Posted by Bellezza | March 17, 2014, 9:06 pmI haven’t read any of these — never heard of a bunch of them! Lots of things to add to the list!
Posted by Jenny @ Reading the End | March 18, 2014, 12:21 amJenny,
Yes, loads of books to add to your list! Do they really expect us to read books when the snow is thawing, the birds are chirping and sun is shining out there? 😀
Posted by JoV | March 18, 2014, 7:54 pmI didn’t know that Yoko Ogawa has released a new book (OK, it’s not that new haha). Time to hit the library! Cheers.
Posted by Wilfrid Wong | May 17, 2014, 4:13 pmWilfrid,
Yeah, not so new. Not that great either. 🙂
Posted by JoV | July 2, 2014, 8:05 am