Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Olga Tokarczuk among authors longlisted for Man Booker International Prize

Colombian author Juan Gabriel Vásquez and Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk are two of the 13 authors longlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize. Vásquez and Tokarczuk are being recognized for their translated novels The Shape of the Ruins and Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead, respectively.

The £50,000 award (approx. $87,810 Cdn) celebrates works of translated fiction from around the world. The prize is split equally between author and translator.

Vásquez's The Shape of the Ruins, translated by Anne McLean from Spanish to English, is set in Bogota, Colombia and explores the darkest moments of the country's past. 

• Juan Gabriel Vásquez on how Colombia's violent past has shaped his fiction and his life

Tokarczuk's novel Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, translated from Polish to English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, is an unconventional crime drama about social injustice and mental illness. The Polish author won the 2018 Man Booker International Prize with novel Flights, which was translated by Jennifer Croft.

• Flights by Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk wins 2018 Man Booker International Prize

There are no Canadian authors on the 2019 longlist.

The other books on the longlist are:

• Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth (Oman)
• Love in the New Millennium by Can Xue, translated by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (China)
• The Years by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L. Strayer (France)
• At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell (South Korea)
• Jokes for the Gunmen by Mazen Maarouf, translated by Jonathan Wright (Palestine & Iceland)
•  Four Soldiers  by Hubert Mingarelli, translated by Sam Taylor (France)
• The Pine Islands  by Marion Poschmann, translated by Jen Calleja (Germany)
• Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell (Argentina & Italy)
• The Faculty of Dreams by Sara Stridsberg, translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner (Sweden)
• The Death of Murat Idrissi by Tommy Wieringa, translated by Sam Garrett (Netherlands)
• The Remainder (And Other Stories) by Alia Trabucco Zeran, translated by Sophie Hughes (Chile)

The longlist was selected by a panel of five judges, chaired by  historian, author and broadcaster Bettany Hughes and is made up of writer and translator Maureen Freely, philosopher Angie Hobbs, and writers Elnathan John and novel Pankaj Mishra.

The shortlist of six books will be announced on April 9, 2019 and the winner will be revealed on May 21, 2019.