Posted on March 10, 2022 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

This year's International Booker Prize longlist includes a milestone.

For the first time, says the Guardian, a book translated from Hindi has made the list.

(Britannica reports that Hindi is the world's third-most-spoken language, with 637 million speakers; English is first with 1.27 billion speakers and Mandarin Chinese a close second at 1.12 billion.)

Other details of note from the longlist: translator Anton Hur is on there twice, and nominees who have previously won before include author Olga Tokarczuk and author-translator duo David Grossman and Jessica Cohen. 

Thirteen books from twelve countries and eleven languages are in the running for the £50,000 prize ($65,600), which is split evenly between author and translator.

But this year's shortlisted books — revealed on April 7 — will receive £2,500 (about $3,300), up from £1,000 (about $1,300).

Here are the contenders, from which a winner will be announced May 26.

  • Cursed Bunny, written by Bora Chung and translated from Korean by Anton Hur

  • After The Sun, written by Jonas Eika and translated from Danish by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg

  • A New Name: Septology VI-VII, written by Jon Fosse and translated from Norwegian by Damion Searls

  • More Than I Love My Life, written by David Grossman and translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen

  • The Book of Mother, written by Violaine Huisman and translated from French by Leslie Camhi

  • Heaven, written by Mieko Kawakami and translated from Japanese by Samuel Bett and David Boyd

  • Paradais, written by Fernanda Melchor and translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes

  • Love in the Big City, written by Sang Young Park and translated from Korean by Anton Hur

  • Happy Stories, Mostly, written by Norman Erikson Pasaribu and translated from Indonesian by Tiffany Tsao

  • Elena Knows, written by Claudia Pineiro and translated from Spanish by Frances Riddle

  • Phenotypes, written by Paulo Scott and translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

  • Tomb of Sand, written by Geetanjali Shree and translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell

  • The Books of Jacob, written by Olga Tokarczuk and translated from Polish by Jennifer Croft

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