The International Booker Prize shortlist for 2023 has been announced. Shortlisted from 15 titles, the final list includes works originating from six countries across four continents, two debuts, and a final novel. This year’s shortlisted books offer readers a window onto the world and the opportunity to experience the lives of people from different cultures.
The 2023 judges are looking for the best work of international fiction translated into English, selected from entries published in the UK or Ireland between May 1, 2022 and April 30, 2023.
The judging panel is chaired by the prize-winning French-Moroccan novelist, Leïla Slimani. The panel also includes:
- Uilleam Blacker, one of Britain’s leading literary translators, translating works from Ukrainian into English;
- Tan Twan Eng, the Booker-shortlisted Malaysian novelist;
- Parul Sehgal, staff writer and critic at the New Yorker; and
- Frederick Studemann, Literary Editor of the Financial Times
1. Still Born
Guadalupe Nettel’s gripping and insightful fourth novel explores one of life’s most consequential decisions – whether or not to have children.
By Guadalupe Nettel
Translated by Rosalind Harvey
Read the Still Born full overview
2. Standing Heavy
A unique insight into everything that passes under a security guard’s gaze, which also serves as a searingly witty deconstruction of colonial legacies and capitalist consumption.
By GauZ’
Translated by Frank Wynne
Read the Standing Heavy full overview
3. Time Shelter
A ‘clinic for the past’ offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time.
By Georgi Gospodinov
Translated by Angela Rodel
Read the Time Shelter full overview
4. The Gospel According to the New World
A miracle baby is rumoured to be the child of God. Award-winning Caribbean author Maryse Condé follows his journey in search of his origins and mission.
By Maryse Condé
Translated by Richard Philcox
Read the The Gospel According to the New World full overview
5. Whale
An adventure-satire of epic proportions, which sheds new light on the changes Korea experienced in its rapid transition from pre-modern to post-modern society.
By Cheon Myeong-kwan
Translated by Chi-Young Kim
Read the Whale full overview
6. Boulder
Eva Baltasar demonstrates her pre-eminence as a chronicler of queer voices navigating a hostile world – in prose as brittle and beautiful as an ancient saga.
By Eva Baltasar
Translated by Julia Sanches
Read the Boulder full overview