Thirteen novels made the Man Booker International’s 2018 longlist, announced Monday afternoon. One — Frankenstein in Baghdad — was translated from Arabic:
Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad was published this January, in Jonathan Wright’s translation. The original Arabic, which came out in 2013, won the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, a prize popularly known as the “Arabic Booker.”
The longlist was selected by a panel of five judges, chaired by author Lisa Appignanesi. The others were poet-translator Michael Hofmann, novelist Hari Kunzru, journalist and critic Tim Martin, and novelist Helen Oyeyemi.
The full longlist includes a number of celebrated world authors:
Author (nationality) Translator Title (imprint)
Laurent Binet Sam Taylor The 7th Function of Language
(France) (Harvill Secker)
Javier Cercas Frank Wynne The Impostor
(Spain) (MacLehose Press)
Virginie Despentes Frank Wynne Vernon Subutex 1
(France) (MacLehose Press)
Jenny Erpenbeck Susan Bernofsky Go, Went, Gone
(Germany) (Portobello Books)
Han Kang Deborah Smith The White Book
(South Korea) (Portobello Books)
Ariana Harwicz Sarah Moses & Die, My Love
(Argentina) Carolina Orloff (Charco Press)
László Krasznahorkai John Batki, Ottilie Mulzet The World Goes On
(Hungary) & George Szirtes (Tuskar Rock Press)
Antonio Muñoz Molina Camilo A. Ramirez Like a Fading Shadow
(Spain) (Tuskar Rock Press)
Christoph Ransmayr Simon Pare The Flying Mountain
(Austria) (Seagull Books)
Ahmed Saadawi Jonathan Wright Frankenstein in Baghdad
(Iraq) (Oneworld)
Olga Tokarczuk Jennifer Croft Flights
(Poland) (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Wu Ming-Yi Darryl Sterk The Stolen Bicycle
(Taiwan) (Text Publishing)
Gabriela Ybarra Natasha Wimmer The Dinner Guest
(Spain) (Harvill Secker)
The shortlist of six books will be announced on April 12 at an event in London, with the winner set to be announced on May 22.
It’s worth noting Saadawi also has a short detective story, translated by Jonathan Wright, in the forthcoming collection Baghdad Noir, ed. Samuel Shimon. The story, “A Sense of Remorse,” shares many themes with his award-winning Frankenstein in Baghdad.
