A Guide to the 2023 International Booker Prize Longlist

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This year, Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel, took home the 2023 International Booker Prize. Gospodinov becomes the first Bulgarian author to win the award.

"Through literature we experience the fact that we are, at the end of the day, just human beings. We cry the same. We are moved by the same things. We are all afraid, we all fall in love and we have the same emotions. And this is the point of translation, that all over the world we can understand an emotion," Leïla Slimani, the chair of the judges, said in a statement when the longlist was announced.

She continued, "What was very rewarding about this experience was reading books from all over the world, with an extraordinary variety of form and content. Each of the judges had different tastes and that is what we have tried to reflect in this list. It celebrates the variety and diversity of literary production today, the different ways in which the novel can be viewed. We wanted to give the reader the chance to discover this and to find something that will move or disturb them. The list is also a celebration of the power of language and of authors who wanted to push formal enquiry as far as possible. We wanted to celebrate literary ambition, panache, originality and of course, through this, the talent of translators who have been able to convey all of this with great skill."

On the longlist of 13 books, there are 11 languages represented—including, for the first time, Bulgarian, Catalan, and Tamil. In addition, author Maryse Condé becomes the oldest writer ever longlisted for the prize at the age of 86, and GauZ’, Zou Jingzhi, and Amanda Svensson scored nominations for their first-ever works to appear in English.

Here, a guide to the 13 books on the longlist.

Time Shelter: A Novel

The winner of the 2023 International Booker Prize.

Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel, is about a dystopian "clinic for the past," where a clinic in Zurich reproduces the past for Alzheimer's sufferers. But soon, others seek out the clinic, and the past starts to invade the present.

"A wide-ranging, thought-provoking, macabre and humorous novel about nationality, identity and ageing, and about the healing and destructive power of memory," the judges write about Time Shelter.

Ninth Building

Ninth Building, by Zou Jingzhi, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang, is a collection of vignettes about Jingzhi's childhood growing up during the Cultural Revolution in China.

The judges write it is a "kaleidoscopic and understated collection of interlocking tales of life in an apartment building under the Cultural Revolution – the daily tedium of its inhabitants, lit by brief and tenuous moments of shared humanity."

A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding

A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding by Amanda Svensson, translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley, is the tale of triplets born in October 1989. When the adult triplets learn one of them may have been switched at birth, each one is convinced it is them.

The judges write, "Amanda Svensson’s raucous, sprawling debut takes on the enigmas of our origins, riddles of human consciousness and animal cognition, doomsday cults, and the most bedevilling of mysteries – the minds and choices of our closest intimates."

Still Born

Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey, is about two women, Alina and Laura, who both make decisions about motherhood: Laura gets her tubes tied, and Alina prepares to have a child of her own.

The judges say, "With a twisty, enveloping plot, the novel poses some of the knottiest questions about freedom, disability, and dependence – all in language so blunt it burns."

Pyre

Pyre by Perumal Murugan, translated from Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, is the story of an inter-caste couple in southern India.

The judges, write, "Perumal Murugan is a great anatomist of power and, in particular, of the deep, deforming rot of caste hatred and violence. With flashes of fable, his novel tells a story specific and universal: how flammable are fear and the distrust of others."

The Birthday Party

The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier, translated from French by Daniel Levin Becker, is not for the faint of heart. The story is set in a town in rural France as strangers begin to stalk the houses.

"This impressive and fascinating book reconciles two primal feelings: empathy and dread. It is a very scary book, rooted in the traditions of horror," the judges write. "It is as scary as when we listened to stories about ogres and wolves as children. The writing is formidable. The slow rhythm of the sentences creates tension as much as the situation itself. Laurent Mauvignier also describes brilliantly an abandoned rural France where there is a sense of marginalisation and humiliation."

Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv

Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrey Kurkov, translated from Russian by Reuben Woolley, is a magical realist tale set in western Ukraine in the early 2000s. The judges write, "This is a book full of magic that is always grounded, cosiness that is always on the edge of being unsettled, and dark humour that is always affectionate."

Is Mother Dead

Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth, translated from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund, follows artist Johanna whose mother begins to haunt her thoughts as she prepares a retrospective of her work.

"This is a dark, chilling book. One of its tricks is to rely on a narrator who is an anti-heroine, and who can be annoying because of her narcissism and her malice," the judges say. "That’s what makes her real and what makes us care about her. This novel provides a very fine and cruel understanding of family relationships: the violence of the mother-daughter dynamic, which reminds us of Marguerite Duras; the impossibility of getting to know each other within the same family; family life as a prison of secrets and silence. Vigdis Hjorth manages to create a lot of suspense – a thriller-like tension – and what is amazing is that you never really know whose side you are on."

Standing Heavy

Standing Heavy by GauZ’, translated from French by Frank Wynne, follows an immigrants from the Côte d'Ivoire who try to make their way in France.

The judges say Standing Heavy is "a sharp and satirical take on the legacies of French colonial history and life in Paris today" and "a fresh perspective on France that is critical, funny and human."

The Gospel According to the New World

The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé, translated from French by Richard Philcox, is a bildungsroman set in modern-day Martinique about a child who is rumored to be the messiah.

"Maryse Condé is one of the greatest Francophone authors and the great voice of the Caribbean," the judges write. They add, "The book borrows from the tradition of magical realism and draws us into a world full of colour and life. This is a book that succeeds in mixing humour with poetry, and depth with lightness."

Whale

Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim, is a multigenerational tale set in a remote village in South Korea.

The judges say, "A carnivalesque fairy tale that celebrates independence and enterprise, a picaresque quest through Korea’s landscapes and history, Whale is a riot of a book. Cheon Myeong-Kwan’s vivid characters are foolish but wise, awful but endearing, and always irrepressible. This is a hymn to restlessness and self-transformation."

Boulder

In Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated from Catalan by Julia Sanches, a woman nicknamed "Boulder" falls in love with another woman, Samsa, while working on a merchant ship.

Boulder, the judges write, "is a sensuous, sexy, intense book. Eva Baltasar condenses the sensations and experiences of a dozen more ordinary novels into just over 100 pages of exhilarating prose. An incisive story of queer love and motherhood that slices open the dilemmas of exchanging independence for intimacy."

While We Were Dreaming

While We Were Dreaming by Clemens Meyer, translated from German by Katy Derbyshire, is set during the fall of the Berlin Wall. Following a group of friends who live in Leipzig, the book captures Germany on the brink of change.

The judges write, "Energetic, blunt and hard-charging, While We Were Dreaming skillfully captures with pathos and anger the sense of what happens when all the certainties of the grown-up world evaporate and the future is up for grabs. The story of German unification as it did not appear on your TV screen."

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