The announcement was made at noon by the jury president, writer and literary critic Ted Hodgkinson, over the Internet, followed by the rest of the jury members, who also remotely spoke about each of the works.
Ted Hodgkinson began by pointing out that these are “strange times to make announcements, amid so much uncertainty about the future and with lives altered in so many ways”, and then to point out that it is “in these unknown moments” that the most important thing is reaffirmed “: “which takes us out of isolation and leads us to meet each other”.
When the members of the jury began their journey of reading in October last year, they lived “very different times”, but were “rewarded” for the discoveries they made along the way.
For Ted Hodgkinson, given the current situation in the world, “the cross-cultural conversation, which links the writer and the translator, has become an even more hopeful and necessary act”.
“In this new reality we are confronted with novels that can help us to overcome recent events and restore the feeling of wonder and, above all, they are books that can be read at any time in life, calm any distraction, eliminate any social distance and replace a shared sense of humanity, “he said.
For the jury, who was looking for “exceptional books for exceptional times,” Booker International finalists are “superb” books that go beyond circumstances, “emerging into expansively imagined lives that maintain a lasting fascination”, whether through “imagined dystopias” challenging “or” incandescent streams of language “.
The finalist books are “Tyll”, by German Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin (Quercus), “The Enlightenment of The Greengage Tree”, by Iranian Shokoofeh Azar, by anonymous translator (Europa Editions), “The Adventures of China Iron” , by Argentine Gabriela Cabezón Câmara, translated by Iona Macintyre and Fiona Mackintosh (Charco Press), “Hurricane Season”, by Mexican Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes (Fitzcarraldo Editions), “The Memory Polisse”, by Japanese Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder (Harvill Secker), and “The Discomfort of Evening”, by Dutchwoman Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchison (Faber & Faber).
In addition to Ted Hodgkinson, the director of Vila Gillet and editor Lucie Campos, translator Jennifer Croft, author Valeria Luiselli and journalist and writer Jeet Thayil were part of this jury for the 2020 International Booker Prize.
The winner will be announced on May 19th.
The prize is awarded each year to a single book, which is translated into English and published in the UK, both novels and short story collections are eligible.
The work of the translators is also rewarded, with a prize of 50 thousand pounds (more than 57 thousand euros), to be divided between the author and translator of the winning work.
Each author and each translator in the final list will also receive 1,000 pounds (1,143 euros).
Last year, the winner of the International Booker Prize was the Omani writer Jokha Alharti, with the novel “Celestial Bodies”, published in Portugal earlier this year by Relógio d’Água.
Together, the two Booker awards reward the best fiction from around the world published in English in the UK and Ireland. The Booker awards are sponsored by Crankstart.
